Cinnamon Eyes
by Umeko the God
Summary: Otogi Ryuuji (Duke Devlin) has fallen in love... with the one girl who doesn't like him! No chapter update, just removing an author's note before this fic is deleted... ;;
1. Hitomi no Hitomi

12/7/02- Author's Note: Okay, this is the first romance fic I've done in almost two years. Please keep that in mind if this is kind of… bad. This idea has been danding in my mind for a couple months now, and recently reading "There's Something about Seto Kaiba!" by Magician Yuke has inspired me to finally write it out! (Read it! It's SOOOOO good!) But please take note that Hitomi is in no way based after me (except for her favorite card, which will show up in chapter 3 or 4). I am NOT an Otogi fangirl; if you want an Otogi fangirl, find my big sister (ID: 258598). In fact, I think it's a little stupid to be obsessed with an anime character to the point of fantasizing about dating him, but don't think that I'm trying to belittle those people with my comment; I have many close friends who do so, and I used to as well. ^^;;; Okay, on to the fic that is not following my style at all!!!

Secondary Note: I have estimated that DDM took place in early to mid-April. Again, I'm not sure, but I have guessed this because 1) Domino High School students are still wearing their winter uniforms, which are generally changed around mid-April and 2) transfer students (Otogi had just transferred in the day before DDM) usually transfer in around the beginning of the school year, which in Japan begins in early April. This story takes place a week after Otogi transferred in.

****

Cinnamon Eyes

As was the norm, girls flocked in and surrounded Otogi Ryuuji's desk. After his experience with Mutou Yuugi, however, he felt annoyed by their presence. Otogi now deemed it not his place to show off; despite this, his reputation was set, and would take quite a while to start with a clean pallet.

"Otogi-kun, please do your dice tricks again!" squealed one of the girls. He had never bothered to learn their names, either, which made him feel even worse.

The boy smiled weakly up at the girls. "Sorry, I accidentally left them at home today." _Accidentally on purpose…_ he thought.

At this statement, the girls seemed to lose interest. "Oh." They scattered back to their own seats, deciding to use their homeroom time to finish homework.

Otogi sat at his seat for a while, staring blankly at the far wall. Silently he reprimanded himself for engaging in something so unproductive and time-wasting, but stayed that way all the same. He was suddenly jerked out of it when the door to the classroom opened and a voice proclaimed, "I'm back!"

"Hitomi!" A majority of the girls jumped out of their seats and rushed over to the girl that had just entered.

The auburn-haired girl smiled calmly, brushing her pink bangs out of her face. "Good morning, everyone." Glancing over to their desks, she added, "Get back to work if you want to finish your homework by first bell."

Most of the girls filed back to their desks, save for one. Hitomi turned to her best friend. "How've you been, Keiko?"

"Oh, I've been fine." Keiko giggled. "How about you? You were in Hawaii for three weeks and you didn't even get a tan!"

Hitomi placed her books on her desk. "I didn't get out much. I stayed inside most of the time to make up the work that I was missing."

"Hitomi…" The other girl crossed her arms and glared at her friend in mock anger. "You were there over spring break. You had plenty of free time to spend."

She shrugged. "You know I like to stay inside to do more productive things than activities such as play on the beach." Hitomi, at that moment, noticed the strange boy staring at her. "Hey, Keiko, who's that?"

Keiko looked over her shoulder at the raven-haired boy. "Oh! That's Otogi Ryuuji; he transferred in last week. Isn't he _dreamy_?!"

The taller girl inspected Otogi for a few seconds, then snorted. "What's so appealing about a punk kid with a headband?"

"But, Hitomi, he also invented that new game, Dun-"

"I don't care if he invented Rock-Paper-Scissors!"

Keiko sighed. "You can't tell me you don't find anything mildly attractive about him."

"Well…" Hitomi looked back towards his desk. "He… Hey, where'd he go?"

"Hello," breathed a voice into her ear. She jumped and found herself facing Otogi, up close and personal. He offered a hand to her and grinned. "My name is Otogi Ryuuji. Nice to meet you."

Politely, Hitomi accepted his hand, and responded, "Kawara Hitomi."

"Ah, an appropriate name! Indeed, you have very beautiful cinnamon-colored eyes, and your self is as fragrant as a fresh spring day."

Hitomi found herself pulling her hand away and inching backwards, slightly scared by this strange boy commenting on her body odor. "Yes, well…"

Keiko ran to her friend's side, squealing. "Oh my gosh, Hitomi, you're so lucky! The hottest guy in the grade has a crush on you!"

"Ow, not in my ear, Kei…"

Desks and chairs scraped the floor, and Hitomi was crowded by her female classmates for the second time in ten minutes.

"Hitomi, how dare you! I'm jealous!!"

"Hitomi-san lucky!"

"I'll take him if you don't want him!"

"Gee, if I'd come back from vacation a week late, maybe Otogi-kun would have liked me also…"'

The targeted girl flashed a glare past her classmates, at her admirer. She was mildly surprised to see him blushing, but only for a second. The blood soon evened out again, and he started twirling his hair around his forefinger. Hitomi scrunched up her nose. _He doesn't seem the type to be so embarrassed by such a situation… Strange boy…_ She became steadily fed up with the never-shrinking crowd, and shouted, "I AM NOT INTERESTED IN HIM SO GO AWAY!!!"

Surprised at her outburst, the girls slowly trickled back to their seats. The bell soon rang for class to start, and Hitomi sat back down as well, waiting intently for the teacher to enter the room. She knew the boy three seats back was staring at her intently, but didn't dare look back for fear of causing another commotion.

***

!!Omake!!

Hey, all! This is my little omake section! This is going to be at the end of each chapter, where I do a bunch of random stuff: answer FAQs, put character profiles, draw comics, fool around with the characters, etc. So! For the first edition of our omake section, I'm putting Hitomi's profile and answering FAQs that are bound to be asked! Here goes…!

****

Name: Kawara Hitomi (http://www.boomspeed.com/yugi_h_2_oh/kawara_hitomi.gif [Isn't it pretty? The kanji, I mean.])  
**Meaning:** Ka- fragrance, wara- spring (season), hitomi- eye (the pupil, specifically ^^;;;)  
**Birthday:** July 14 (Cancer)  
**Blood Type:** A  
**Values:** Education, staying on task and not being wavered from her goals  
**Talents:** Schoolwork, logic, skating (any kind)  
**Weak points:** Talking, dealing with emotions, being in the sun  
**Her relationship with:** (Will come into play later)  
**Mutou Yuugi:** Hitomi thinks he's a cute, sweet boy, and sort of looks to him as a younger brother. She enjoys interacting with such an innocent, meek boy, but can tell that he has a certain maturity to him, and can often seem to have another personality…  
**Jounouchi Katsuya:** She can get a little annoyed at him sometimes, but besides that likes being around him. He amuses her a lot, but frustrates her more often than he would the others. On the rare occasion that they aren't arguing, the get along very well.  
**Masaki Anzu: **Unlike most other people around, Hitomi is easily annoyed by Anzu. She doesn't hide her feelings either, and will openly tell her to shut up if need be. Despite this, they frequently look past their differences and escape the constant influence of the opposite sex; under these circumstances, they are very friendly to each other.  
**Honda Hiroto:** Next to Yuugi, Hitomi probably gets along with Honda the best. They rarely argue, unless it's a tag team effort against Jounouchi. Their favorite pastime together is playing tiny pranks on Jounouchi, easily accomplished with a combination of Honda's slyness and Hitomi's logical thinking.  
**Bakura Ryou:** She's openly indifferent towards Bakura, and tolerates him because he appears to be sweet. She feels a bit unnerved when he's around, though, and she sincerely doesn't like him that much.  
**Kaiba Seto: **Hitomi doesn't talk with Kaiba that much, but gets along well with him when she does. Their personalities are similar on some levels, allowing them to be close when they do interact.  
**Otogi Ryuuji: **Well… what can I say? He annoys her right off the bat (the "spring's fragrance" thing really threw her off), and she openly expresses her dislike towards him. But only time will tell how she grows towards him… *giggles like a stupid knave*  
**My comments:** I'm not too sure where the whole "education ROCKS!!!" (to put it bluntly) thing came up, but Hitomi values her schoolwork. She's not particularly intelligent, but studies hard and the girls in her class look up to her in a sense. When reading or in class, she wears glasses, but not at home or when she's out. Hitomi doesn't like being in the sun, but goes outside when it's raining, cloudy, or nighttime. PLEASE don't call her a Mary-Sue! Okay, that's not fair; if you think of her as a Mary-Sue, I have no right to prevent you from saying so. But Hitomi is not perfect in any way, shape, or form. She has her flaws, definitely more than I have listed in this profile (I'm sort of at a mind block now…). However, if you do feel that Hitomi is getting some sort of special treatment, tell me what you think about her and how you think I can improve her character. If you don't like her, how else will I know how to make her likable?

****

FAQ

How did you come up with the idea for the story?  
The same way I come up with most stories. :P I was sitting in my English class listening to my teacher pretending to be a history teacher and telling us the history of South Africa, when I thought to myself, "Otogi needs a girlfriend." Random? Yes? Well, anyway, in a total of about 10 seconds I had a story planned out, and I pulled out some paper to sketch "Otogi's girlfriend" out. Then (still in English) I inked the picture, erased the pencil, and colored it with colored pencils. Yes, I am a psychopath that ALWAYS has high-quality art supplies in my bookbag.

****

Didn't your teacher notice?  
This really doesn't have anything to do with the story, but the answer is: probably, since I sit right up front next to the desk that she likes to sit on. But my English teacher lurves me SO much that she doesn't care! HAW HAW HAW!!!

****

What does Hitomi look like?  
Here is that famed picture, complete with the random doodles that were around it: http://www.boomspeed.com/yugi_h_2_oh/hitomi.jpg. The uniform might be a little screwed up because I forgot what it looked like and… I was sort of in class at the time…

****

Whatever happened to Battle City?  
Believe it or not, I actually took that into consideration. I have no idea when exactly Battle City takes place, but for the sake of this fic, we're just pretending that it's either not there or not taking place until… umm… August? *laughs nervously*

****

Why is this so BAD?  
Why is Otogi so OOC?  
Because this is the boring boring first chapter that I put absolutely no effort into because it's BORING to read and BORING to write. I want to write the SECOND AND THIRD AND FOURTH CHAPTERS!!! AND WHATEVER CHAPTERS COME AFTER THAT!!! I really did not want to write this chapter, but I had to because I couldn't very well start at the SECOND chapter and make everybody go, "huh?" I mean, I COULD, but that would just be mean. And, actually, Hitomi is really OOC also. I'll try my hardest to make everyone IC next chapter!!!

****

I HATE HITOMI! SHE SHOULD GO TO *rest is censored out*!!!!!  
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOwhatever. I could care less what you think. Actually, that's not true. TELL ME HOW TO MAKE HER BETTER, THEN!!!!

Okay, I think that's it! I'll see you guys next chapter! *waves*

Next Chapter  
Chapter Two: Boku, Mutou Yuugi. Hajimemashite! (I'm Mutou Yuugi. Nice to meet you!)


	2. Boku, Mutou Yuugi Hajimemashite!

12/10/02- I got ONE review, so I suppose I'll continue this! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! (Yeah, I was going to continue it anyway.) The first couple of paragraphs are badly written, so you don't have to tell me. I know. ;)

Okay, now I have two. And NEITHER of them are from my friends that I have ordered to read it. SOB!!! OH, WELL!! I SHALL SMITE THEM LATER!!! FOAM!!!

****

Cinnamon Eyes

Hitomi was the first one out the door when the bell rang for lunch. She jogged down the hall, dodging passing students, and eventually found herself in another classroom. A couple girls acknowledged her return, and she nodded in reply.

"Hello!" A strange boy with spiky hair at the other side of the room smiled and waved. His three friends, a girl and two boys, followed suit.

"Hitomi-chan!" came a voice from the hallway. She bristled and jumped under the boy's desk.

"Hey, what…?"

"Hey!" squealed the girl.

"Yuugi-kun!" Otogi stuck his head into the room. "Did Hitomi-chan just pass by here?"

__

Yuugi-kun? Hitomi thought.

"Uh… who?"

"A girl with reddish-brown hair about to here and pink bangs." His hands hovered over his shoulders to indicate the length of Hitomi's hair.

The boy stuttered. "Uh, well, she…"

Hitomi punched his leg.

"Ow! Yeah, she passed by. Keep going down the hall, Otogi-kun."

Otogi raised an eyebrow, but kept going. As soon as his footsteps died away, Hitomi emerged.

"Are you Mutou Yuugi? You finished first place in the Duelist Kingdom tournament?"

Yuugi blinked. "Uhh… yeah. Um… Hitomi?"

She smiled. "Sorry about that. Lunch is basically the only time I can get away from him. I'm Kawara Hitomi." She brushed off her skirt.

"Well, that's the first time I've seen a girl running _away_ from Otogi," commented the taller, brown-haired boy. "I'd understand if it were Jounouchi, but…"

"Hey!" The blonde boy pushed his shoulder. "What are you saying, Honda? Anyway…" he turned to Hitomi, "have you heard of me? Jounouchi Katsuya, won second in the Duelist Kingdom tournament?"

Hitomi scowled. "Never heard of you."

Jounouchi fell over, and the others laughed. "Hey…!"

"I'm just kidding!" She waved her hand. "I've heard of you."

"REALLY?!" This outburst came not only from Jounouchi but from his comrades as well.

She nodded. "Jounouchi Katsuya, won second place; won against Bandit Keith Howard in the semifinals, then lost against Mutou Yuugi the next round. Previously was in the final eight in the Domino City tournament."

"You seem to know your Duel Monsters statistics," smiled the girl. Now that she wasn't in such a panic, Hitomi recognized her as Mazaki Anzu; she'd never talked to her, though she could place the name with the face.

Hitomi sat herself on top of a desk. "I play the game every so often. My deck's not that great, though."

Honda laughed. "Neither is mine, but at the moment I'm hungry. Jounouchi! Go buy bentou boxes for all of us!" He slapped Jounouchi on the back.

"Agh! Why me?!"

Yuugi jumped off his chair. "I'll get them, Honda-kun, don't worry!"

"You're not the one that won all that prize money, Yuugi!" Honda put his arms behind his head. "Or with a job."

Jounouchi grumbled. "But my sis-"

"I'm kidding!" Honda slapped a 1000 yen note into his friend's hand. "It's my turn to pay, anyway."

"Why should I walk there…"

"Aw, quit whining Jounouchi-kun!" Yuugi laughed. "Just go or we'll have no time to eat."

Jounouchi stomped out the door, and Hitomi crept over to where Anzu was standing. "Is it always like this, Mazaki?"

"Most of the time," she sighed. "It's times like this that I wonder if Mai-san was right… Anyway, what's with you and Otogi?"

"Yeah, what's going on?" Yuugi inquired.

"Well…" Hitomi paused, trying to think of the best way to word her situation. "He obviously has a huge crush on me. If he's trying to hide it, he's failing miserably."

Honda laughed. "You must be the only girl in school who doesn't like him fawning over you!"

"He annoys me. A lot."

"He's not _that_ bad…" Anzu brought up. "He can seem a jerk at first, but he's pretty nice."

Hitomi giggled. "Why don't _you_ go after him, then, Mazaki?"

The other girl blushed furiously. "I didn't mean…!" Her eyes darted from Hitomi to Yuugi and back to Hitomi.

"I see," she nodded knowingly. "You like to tower over your guys."

"Ahh…!" It was Yuugi's turn to blush. "Do… do you two really think you should be talking girl stuff in front of us…?" He waved his hands in front of his face, indicating that he didn't want to hear.

"You take things too seriously!" Hitomi sat back on the desk. "Seriously, you do."

"We wouldn't if you didn't say your jokes with a straight face…" Honda suggested.

Hitomi blinked, then broke her calm manner with giggles. "You're right! I'm sorry." She gasped. "Hey, Yuugi, do you know how I could get Otogi to leave me alone?!"

"Revenge against Otogi?!" Jounouchi ran in with five white boxes. "I'm in!"

"It's not revenge, I just want him to leave me alone."

"Well…" Yuugi crossed his arms and closed his eyes.

Hitomi felt a sudden chill, almost like another person had entered the room, or that a person left…? And it wasn't Jounouchi.

Yuugi opened his eyes a second later. "Hitomi, you play Duel Monsters, right…?"

***

"Otogi!" Hitomi walked into her classroom after lunch, and found Otogi's emerald eyes following her. The girls giggled at Hitomi yelling her stalker's name.

"Hitomi-chan!" Otogi crossed his arms. "Where were you during lunch? I would have bought a lunch for you…"

Hitomi ignored this statement and slammed her deck onto his desk. "Otogi, I challenge you to a duel!"

***

^-^ Omake!! ^-^

Well, this chapter isn't much better than the first. Otogi's still a little out of character… malesh! You don't have to read this part if you don't want to, it'll just be random stuff this chapter…

Anyway! I probably won't have the next chapter up until Saturday, at the earliest. I have an essay to do for English by Friday, and I'm hoping to finish my manga for the Tokyopop contest by Saturday. I also have my talkshow and chapter two of the Pegasus' Boats story to do, and I may want to get those out of the way before chapter three of this fic.

Next chapter will get more interesting! It might be a little confusing, because it's going to be riddled with mini-flashbacks, and it'll be the first duel that I make up. Aughhh… *falls over* I think I may be in over my head… but, then again, that can be the describing phrase of my whole life. (Note to the younger viewers: If eleventh grade is the supposed "biggest workload" grade, make SURE you have an elective SOMEWHERE in your schedule. It'll also help to make sure the classes you have aren't supposed to be in SEPARATE semesters…)

Okay, just for kicks, and because I have no idea what else to write, I'll give you my class schedule, just to show you how much my school wants to screw me over. YAY!!!

****

Fall Semester (September 4- January 17)

Block 1: 20th Century World Studies

Block 2: 20th Century World Literature Honors

Block 3: Integrated Math 3

Block 4: Novice Spanish B

****

Spring Semester (January 20- June 13) (Unsure of class order)

Painting Portfolio

Spanish 2 Honors

Chemistry

Integrated Math 4

Isn't that just GRAND? History and English are the major writing courses, so we're supposed to have them in separate semesters. This is the SECOND year in a row that I've had them in the same semester, and since it's ELEVENTH GRADE, which is SO important, I have an average of 3 novels to read and 3 essays to write every month. I'm actually procrastinating on my History homework so that I can write this out. *hopes for the delayed opening to be real* Okay, school isn't THAT bad, because all my teachers love me and allow me to cut corners. But in my math teacher's case, that can be not that great, as he thinks I'm OH-so-talented, and it's a HUGE deal if I miss an assignment, because I CAN do better because I'm SO great at EVERYTHING!!! AND!!! If I don't put enough "artistic talent" in my work, he gets upset. HELLO?! It's MATH!!! Malesh. He's just a stupid old man who wears (tight, pink-and-purple striped) shirts that he SHOULDN'T…

Um… Spanish is okay, since I'm utterly talented with languages, but the kids don't like me that much because "I'm smarter than them." They just discovered today that I can draw and read Japanese, also, and one of the girls stomped out the door when I said that, yes, I knew what that (Japanese kanji) said. Malesh. *directed towards the kids in her Spanish class* Yes, I know English and Spanish AND Japanese AND even a little Egyptian!!! (Actually, I only know a single word of Egyptian. "Malesh" means "whatever.")

You know, people have probably long since stopped reading this. MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Malesh. Here's a list of songs I listened to as I was writing this. :P

Mokona Ondo de Pupupu de Pu (Magic Knight Rayearth)

Ice Cream Child (Ojamajo Doremi)

Ojamajo Ondo de Happippi (Ojamajo Doremi)

Yuzurenai Negai (Magic Knight Rayearth)

Takeshi's Paradise (Pocket Monsters)

Itsu no Hika (Yonekura Chihiro)

Tomodachi no Uta (Ojamajo Doremi)

Yuugure Buranko (Ojamajo Doremi)

Pop na Yuuki (Ojamajo Doremi)

Ojamajo is No.1! (Ojamajo Doremi)

Ieru Ka Neo? (Pocket Monsters)

True to Your Heart (Mulan)

Ojamajo Happy Christmas (Ojamajo Doremi)

Hikari to Kage o Dakishimeta (Magic Knight Rayearth)

Up Side Down (Kaitou Saint Tail)

Owaranai Monogatari (Ojamajo Doremi)

Now that I think about it… where did my Yu-Gi-Oh MP3s go? HMMMmmm…. Whatever! I'm running out of things to ramble about now, so I think I'll do my History homework.

Thanks for reading! I hope you look forward to the next chapter!!

Next Chapter

Chapter 3: Duel! (The Japanese equivalent of "It's time to duel!")


	3. DUEL!

1/18/03- Whee. Do you know what is boring? Drivers' Ed. Luckily, that gives me time to write stories. WHAT? Did you think I actually PAID ATTENTION?? PFFFT!! And also, everybody ignores me even when I raise my hand. Sniff. So, what do I do during our breaks? NO, I DON'T SOCIALIZE!!! I write fics! YAY!!!  
I think I've ranted enough about Drivers' Ed. I'll write the story now.

Sometimes I wonder WHY I put dates on my comments…

Oh, yes, one other note. My semester just ended and I have a four-day weekend, and I have absolutely NO homework because it would be kind of retarded if a teacher gave out homework after the course ended. Or before it started. So, I'll be writing quite a bit, and my next semester is the easy cheesy one, and I'll have more time THEN as well! YAY!!!

****

Cinnamon Eyes

Otogi blinked and looked up at Hitomi. "Wh… what?"

"I said, I challenge you to a duel."

By now, a crowd had gathered around the desk. He sat still, stunned, but then regained composure and twirled his hair around his finger. "Are you sure? I really would rather not put your self-confidence on the line…" His finger stopped, and his eyes moved upwards to look at Hitomi. "I'm sure you wouldn't be hurt too much in losing a game you haven't played before. How about…"

"No Dungeon Dice Monsters. We're playing a game that neither of us has invented. We're playing Duel Monsters."

__

"If you want him to leave you alone, challenge him to a duel."

"What does that have to do with anyth-"

"I'll get to that." Hitomi noticed that while on the subject of Duel Monsters, Yuugi looked more serious and collected. He acted as if the game was his life; it was no wonder that he'd defeated both the world champion and the creator of the game. The amazing thing was that he seemed to still have a healthy social life.

King of Games, indeed.

"The first thing you have to be careful of is that he'll try to counter your challenge by challenging you to DDM."

"DDM?"

"Dungeon Dice Monsters, the game he created," Jounouchi spoke up. "That happened to Yuugi. Luckily, we had the other Yuu- OW!"

Honda had elbowed him in the stomach.

Hitomi looked at Yuugi strangely. "The other who?"

"Oh, just forget about that for now," Yuugi waved it off. "But regarding your first question…"

"Ahh, you've done your homework, my dear." Otogi stood up so that he could be close to eye level. "You've been talking to Yuugi-kun?"

"Um, yeah… how did you know?"

"That's the only person you could have gotten that information from. Save for his friends." He strode past her, then turned around again. "Well, what are the conditions?" He smiled. "You want something from me, and Yuugi-kun told you to challenge me to a duel. What is it?"

__

"You see, Otogi-kun is a man of his word. If he agrees to something, he will_ see it through."_

"Oh! I get it!" Hitomi clapped her hands together. "So, I challenge him to a duel, and request that…

"If I win, you have to leave me alone." She crossed her arms as the girls started screaming and protesting. "That means no familiar suffixes, no stalking, none of this 'dear' stuff, and _no_ attempts to make me fall for you."

"Hmm…" Otogi rubbed his chin, trying to block out the screams ringing in his ears. "I accept."

The screaming stopped, and a bewildered silence filled the room.

"But what if I win?"

"You win?" Hitomi blinked. _I didn't think of that. But it is only fair for him to make a request, also…_ "Well, then…" She blushed. "You can… What do you want? Name anything that you want."

"If I win," Otogi started twirling one of his bangs around his forefinger, "then you have to go on a date with me."

Hitomi was silent. "A date? A single date? That's it? I said you could ask for anything. You could have demanded that I be your girlfriend, or a kiss, or… or… or even…"

"I'm not going to force you to do anything you really don't want me to do, Hitomi-chan. That's not what love is."

The silence changed from bewildered to eerie. "L-love, huh?" Hitomi blushed even more. "But what if I don't want to go on a date with you?"

He chuckled and leaned down so that he could look straight into her eyes. "Believe me, after one date, you will feel the same towards me as I to you."

***

"So… you rented this dueling field _just_ for our duel?" Hitomi looked around the Black Crown dueling field.

"Well, yeah…"

"You act like it's not such a big deal."

"It isn't." He glanced at her, flashing a smile. "Shall we start?"

Hitomi looked up at him. "No cameras?"

"Of course not. This is our private duel, unless you _want_ cameras, of course."

"No, thank you."

It was at that point that Yuugi and the others walked into the arena.

"No, wait, what?!" Otogi glared at them. "This is a _private_ duel! No spectators!!"

"But I invited them…" Hitomi leaned on Otogi and rested her head on his shoulder. "Please?"

Otogi blushed, and Jounouchi snickered. "Well… only one, then…"

"Yuugi can stay," Honda said immediately. "He's the best candidate for that."

"Yeah, good luck, Hitomi-san!!" Anzu winked at her.

The three walked out the door, and Yuugi smiled nervously up at the two. "Um… are you going to duel now?"

"Gladly." Otogi walked to one end of the field, and Hitomi to the other. As they stood in front of their electronic card-reading boards, Otogi called out, "I hope you know how to use the cards they lent you, Hitomi-chan! I wouldn't want to beat you because of that!"

She slammed her deck down and gritted her teeth. "Don't worry, I do!"

"Am I really that predictable?" groaned Yuugi.

"Don't worry, Yuugi-kun, that's good!" Hitomi yelled at him. "It means you have a kind heart!"

Otogi tapped his finger on the metal. Are you ready yet, Hitomi-chan? I'd rather not get into a conversation about hearts…"

"Yeah, sorry." She shrugged.

"You set the rules, and I move first?"

"Sure." She thought for a moment. "Two thousand life points, no directly attacking the opponent except under special circumstances, and no need to sacrifice monsters to summon a higher-level one."

"Okay, then. Simplest rules…"

They both grinned at each other, and shouted "DUEL!!"

Hitomi drew her hand and looked at the five cards. _Green Phantom King, Frog the Jam, Silver Bow and Arrow, Magic Jammer, and Hinotama. Eh, I could have a better hand, but let's see what he does first…_ She looked over the field at the boy, wearing a face full of concentration. _How odd. He fawns all over me in other situations, but abandons that all in the dueling arena. He must be a pretty good duelist… crud…_

"I put one monster face down in defense mode and another card face down. It's your turn."

Hitomi peered at him. "Okay, then. Um… first I use Hinotama, which takes away 500 of your life points."

Otogi shrugged as the LCD screen reduced his points from 2000 to 1500.

"And then… I'll attack with Frog the Jam!" She put down the card, and a holographic image of a green blob appeared.

****

Frog the Jam [700/500]

Otogi raised an eyebrow. "Frog the Jam, Hitomi-chan?"

"Shut up, I know what I'm doing. Attack his face down monster!"

The blob croaked, and the face down monster was revealed to be Skull Servant before disappearing.

Hitomi snorted. "Really, Otogi, I expected more from you. Its defense point value was only 200. Your turn."

Otogi pulled a card from his deck. "I was just giving you an easy start."

"Please don't."

"Whatever. I put this card down in attack mode," he placed a card down, "Dark King of the Abyss!"

****

Dark King of the Abyss [1200/800]

"Shoot…" The long-nailed monster attacked Hitomi's Frog the Jam, bringing her points down to 1500.

"We're even now, Hitomi-chan!" Otogi winked. "Your turn."

Hitomi picked up a card, growling. "Even… Not for long…" She looked at the pulled card. _Ray & Temperature…! That's good, my favorite card…_ "I play Ray & Temperature in attack mode!" A hologram of the sun and winds then appeared on the field.

****

Ray & Temperature [1000/1000]

"That's still not strong enough-"

"And…" Hitomi pulled a card from her hand.

__

"Let me see your deck, Hitomi!" Yuugi held out an eager hand, and Hitomi passed it over. Shuffling through it, Yuugi's eyes took in everything that was included. "Okay… It's a good deck, but, no offence, it needs to be a little bit better against Otogi-kun."

"Well, okay…"

"You need some more Magic and Trap cards. Your deck is mostly Fairy and Spellcaster cards… we can work with that."

"Fairy cards? Here, Hitomi-san." Anzu handed her a card. "You can use this…"

"I equip Ray & Temperature with Silver Bow and Arrow!" Temperature, the wind, was now holding the new accessory.

****

Ray & Temperature [1300/1300]

"And now… attack the Dark King!!"

Temperature pulled back on the bow and let the arrow fly towards the Dark King of the Abyss. It made contact, and the Dark King exploded into pieces of light.

"Great going, Hitomi!" cheered Yuugi.

****

Otogi Ryuuji [1400 LP]

Otogi sneered. "Okay, then, I'll get serious now…"

"THANK YOU! I don't need you to go easy on me!!!" Hitomi flailed her arms in a futile attempt to stress her point. "Now take your turn!"

He took a card from the deck and placed it on the field. "King of Yamimakai, attack mode!"

****

King of Yamimakai [2000/1530]

Hitomi slammed her hands on the board. _Oh, no!_ She looked at Yuugi, panicked, to see him staring intently at the battle. "Yuugi-kun!"

He calmly turned his head to face her, his eyes looking more serious than usual. "Let it play out. We'll see what happens then."

"Save your frenzy, Hitomi-chan." She turned back towards Otogi. "My turn isn't over yet. I play this magic card…" He turned over the card he had placed down in the first turn. "Yami!"

The field's surface turned dark, and Hitomi's monster seemed to sag a bit. "What… wha?"

"Yami decreases the attack and defense of Fairy-type monsters," Otogi said, waving a finger. "It also increases the attack and defense of Fiend-type monsters, which my King of Yamimakai is."

****

King of Yamimakai [2200/1730]

Ray & Temperature [800/800]

"No…"

"Attack!" The King of Yamimakai did so, destroying Ray & Temperature.

****

Kawara Hitomi [100 LP]

"Hitomi!" She turned to look back at Yuugi. "Listen! Your deck is mostly Fairies and Spellcasters, right? Yami also powers-up Spellcaster-type monsters, so you're not at a full disadvantage."

She glanced at her hand. Green Phantom King and Magic Jammer. _Yeah, but there are no Spellcasters in my hand._

"Your turn, Hitomi-chan."

"I'm aware of that!" she snapped, even though it hadn't been announced before that. She pulled a card, and got Book of Secret Arts.

__

"Take this too, Hitomi." Yuugi handed her a card. "That's for powering up your Spellcasters."

Hitomi growled. _I need a Spellcaster monster card, not a Magic card that powers up Spellcasters!_ She sighed, and put a card down. "Monster card, face down in defense mode. Your turn."

Otogi stared at her carefully for a moment, then added another card to his hand. "I'll only attack this turn. Attack the face down card!!"

Hitomi hung her head as the Green Phantom King was destroyed. "My turn again, then…" She closed her eyes and pulled the next card, hoping it would be a Spellcaster…

****

Aqua Madoor [1200/2000]

__

Perfect… it's a Spellcaster! Not enough attack, but…

"I put Aqua Madoor down in defense mode!" She watched the LCD screen as its attack and defense increased by 200 points. "And then… I equip it with Book of Secret Arts!"

****

Aqua Madoor [1700/2500]

Yuugi smiled and nodded approvingly.

"Your turn, Otogi."

He sighed. "Obviously, I can't attack with this monster." He pulled a card. "Aha. But I can with this. The duel ends here." He placed the card down, and Mystic Lamp appeared on the field.

****

Mystic Lamp [600/500]

Hitomi scoffed. "What are you talking about? It may have gotten a power bonus, but it's still way too weak!"

"Mystic Lamp can attack you directly."

"Oh, well, then… WHAT?!"

Otogi stared at her seriously. "I won't attack you if you want me to go easy on you."

Hitomi paused, then hung her head. "Just do it, then."

He looked at her with pity in his green eyes. "I'm sorry. Mystic Lamp, attack!"

****

Kawara Hitomi [0 LP]

She stepped off the platform, and Yuugi ran towards her. "Hitomi!"

She looked down at him, and smiled. "It's okay. I did my best."

Yuugi paused, then smiled as well. "That's right. That's all that counts." He noticed that she was staring at him. "Um… Hitomi, is something wrong?"

Hitomi took her eyes away and shook her head. "No, I'm fine." _Maybe I was just imagining that Yuugi was being more serious… I was pretty far away from him…_

Suddenly, she was grasped into a hug. "I'm sorry, Hitomi-chan! I'm so, so, so sorry!!!"

She growled and pushed Otogi off her. "Don't touch me."

"Well, whatever." He shrugged. "As for that date… is Saturday after school okay?"

***

-_-Omake-_-

Hey-yo, peoples! I don't exactly have an actual omake planned out, but I'll just make some announcements, followed by responses to my reviews.  
First of all, if this isn't your first time reading this story, you'll notice that I've renamed the chapters, since the previous names have been really stupid.  
If this is your first time, welcome!  
Also, I've gone through past chapters and made some changes. Nothing big, just adding a suffix or two.  
And also, if you have already reviewed to the Christmas chapter and want to review to this one, you sort of won't be able to, because the Christmas chapter was previously chapter 3. So, if that is the case for you, review… at some other chapter… and you might want to indicate that you are reviewing for chapter 3.  
I think that's it for announcements… I should have the next chapter up within a few days.

****

Reviews

dancing elf- Thank you for your support throughout the first two chapters! ^^ …Where did you go? (Just kidding! HAW HAW HAW!!)

Minoizuri- Yeah… I hate those cheerleaders SO much. ;D

Blue Elf- My favorite MKR character is Ryo Akiyama (in-joke).

jus a gurl- Erm… maybe… I know that Otogi does like her, but I think Honda deserves her more!! :D

- Thank you, I will. (Why is your name a space?)

Neesan (Queen Mab)- Mwa. COME OVER TO MY HOUSE!!! NOOOWWWWWWWW!!!!!! Then we can watch what you call "Otogi goodness" on my DVDs. I'm also going to force you to watch episode 80. (Which brings up the question… why am I not writing a Jounouchi/Mai fic? Hmm… Actually, in truth, I want to, but I can't think of a plot…) OH! HERE YOU ARE!!!

Diamond- Arigatou!

Black Magician Girl- …YEAH! Actually, I think I maybe went too far with the Christmas chapter… whatever.

Hikari Briefs/Alexi Serenitia- Mwahahaha!! You are on AIM right now, so you may be the first to read this chapter!!!

Frying Pan Girl- …WHERE?! I WANT TO SEE!!!

Anime*Angel- XD That's one of the many hilarious quotes in the Christmas chapter… and I still have a few up my sleeves.

(Link and) Luigi- I'm sorry that I smote you! Sniff… But Yuugi's pajamas are MINE!!!! (http://www.boomspeed.com/yugi_h_2_oh/sleepyuugi.gif) The Japanese level is increasing a tiny bit now, only because I've decided that the chapters are going to have names in Japanese instead of stupid LETTERS. Otogi SHOULD be with Honda. They're perfect for each other! They're ALWAYS together after Otogi comes into Batoru SHTEE!!! They hung off a blimp together! YAY!!!!

Okay, I think that's it. See you next chapter! *waves*

Next Chapter  
Chapter Four: Deeto janai mo! (It's not a date!)


	4. Deeto janai mo!

1/19/03- LOOK AT ME BEING PRODUCTIVE!!!

1/21/03- I'm so sorry that I didn't get this up when I said I was going to!! My parents decided that I needed to study for the SATs- despite the fact that I took them when I was twelve and am already getting overwhelmed by the email I'm receiving from colleges (because of the PSATs earlier this year. Do they even CARE about the PSATs?). Oh, and don't yell at me that three emails is not something to be overwhelmed by. It is when you never get any email at all. Anyway, to make up for going against my word, I have a drawing that I drew in school today. During my classes that are OH so easy. yay! (I purposely made the first y lowercase.) There's also a preview to the next chapter on it, since it JUST SO HAPPENS to be on the same piece of paper!! (Hint- I did that purposely for you guys.) Anyway, enjoy!

****

Cinnamon Eyes

"Hitomi, your date with Otogi-kun is today, right?!"

Hitomi entered the room with a mop and leaned on the handle. "It's not a date, and move the desks out of the way. The floor needs to be cleaned, Keiko."

"You're so lucky, though!" squealed another girl, Marumi, as she helped in moving the desks around. "You should hurry so that you can go!"

"I'll hurry," she positioned the mop and ran across the room, sliding it on the floor, "but only so that I can get it over with!"

The six girls rolled their eyes toward her, their arms crossed. "Hitomi…"

Hitomi stopped and glared back. "I'm not the only one that's cleaning the room, you know."

"Do you remember what he said?"

"You mean about me loving him after only one date?" She scoffed. "He's such a self-centered idiot, he doesn't know what he's talking about."

"Well…" Toshiko looked out the window she was cleaning. "That self-centered idiot is waiting outside for you to finish."

"What?!" Hitomi dropped the mop and ran to the window. Leaning out, she spotted Otogi waiting near the main gate. "OTOGI!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

He turned to look at the window and shouted back. "Are you almost finished, Hitomi-chan?!"

"NOOO!! Go home!!" She pointed in a random direction, not sure of where his home was. "I'm not walking around in my school uniform!"

"I'll pick you up at your house, then?!"

"Do what you want!!" She slammed the window closed.

"You closed the window on my rag, Hitomi."

"Oh, be quiet!" She leaned against the wall and stared at the others. "If you really want me to go on that 'date,' do your part in cleaning and I'll be out of here sooner!"

"OKAY!!!" They rushed around the room, making sure that everything was in order.

Hitomi sighed. _Why can't I be in some other homeroom…?_

***

A half-hour later, she found herself walking down the street next to the boy that she'd least like to be found with.

"Are you cold at all, Hitomi-chan? It's close to freezing…"

"No, I'm fine." She looked up at the sky. _Why is it this cold in April? Abnormally cold weather this year… At least it isn't too sunny…_ "So, what are you planning to do, Otogi?"

"Well, first we could have lunch… and then whatever you wanted."

She peered at him. "Whatever _I_ wanted? You're the one who wanted to go on this date…"

"Exactly." He smiled at her. "If you're to be suffering oh-so-much with me, you should at least be enjoying yourself."

"Hmm…" Hitomi giggled, ran ahead a bit, then turned around to look at him. "You know, you're sweet, Otogi. If I didn't hate you so much, I might fall in love with you."

"Ah. I'll have to remember that, then." He passed by her and stopped. "So, where do you want to eat?"

She caught up with him and grabbed his arm. "You're _too_ sweet. I'm not going to decide everything."

"Well…" Otogi blushed and thought for a minute. "There's a little café around the corner that you might like. How's that?"

"That's fine." Hitomi let go of him. "Then we can go ice skating!"

"Ice skating…" He chuckled. "Whatever you want, Hitomi-chan…"

***

She put her hands on her hips. "You mean you're _not_ going to skate? Some date you are…"

"You've seemed to lighten up a bit." He leaned against the wall near the entrance to the rink. "I'll skate later, you go on ahead."

Hitomi shrugged. "Whatever." Otogi watched as she skated off.

He leaned his arms on the ledge below the window, his eyes following her movements. _If she didn't hate me, she'd love me… Ahh, she's confusing sometimes…_ He held his face in his hands. _What did I ever do to make her hate me…? Maybe I came on too strong…_

He made his way over to the rink entrance and attempted to find balance on the ice. Holding onto the wall, his feet wobbled, until his right ankle turned inward and he slipped. "Ah…!"

Before he hit the ice, he found himself being pulled by the hands along the ice. "Have you ever ice skated, Otogi?" Unusually kind eyes smiled at him through rose-colored bangs.

"Um… no, I haven't." Hitomi stopped, and he managed to stand upwards again. "Erm… thank you."

She giggled, watching the usually graceful and collected Otogi Ryuuji fighting to remain balanced. "Here, take my hands." She held them out, and he took them. "Okay, now just pretend you're walking on normal ground."

Otogi frowned. "What do you think I was doing?"

"Okay… well, then, try moving your feet back and forth like this." She demonstrated, and he followed her instructions. "That's it. Now, all you have to do is move forward while doing that."

"Um…"

"What, do you doubt me? Fine then!" She began skating backwards, pulling him along. "There you go! You're skating!"

"I'm being pulled! This isn't skating!!"

"Okay, Otogi!" Hitomi picked up speed, fast, then let go of him, shouting, "Skate on your own!"

"Ack!" Otogi rocked backwards and forwards, arms flailing, as Hitomi continued skating backwards in front of him. "Hi-Hitomi-chan!"

"Yes?"

"You didn't tell me how to stop!"

"Oh, well…"

"Watch out!"

She hit the wall, and he immediately threw himself onto the ice so as not to run into her.

"Ow…" Hitomi looked down at her comrade. "Otogi, are you okay?"

"Oh, I'm fine. I only got a mouth full of shredded ice, a few chipped teeth and about ten broken bones. Nothing serious. How are you?"

She laughed. "I'm okay. You aren't looking up my skirt, are you?"

"Let's see, I'm facedown and my eyes are swollen shut. No."

"Everything's okay, then!" She held out her hand. "Come on, get up. We'll go somewhere else now."

He groaned.

"Come on!" She kicked him so that he was face-up, then grabbed his hand. "Get up, now."

"Meeehhh…"

"Geez, how much do you weigh?"

"Sixty-four kilos."

"I didn't expect you to answer that…" Hitomi attempted to get him into a sitting position, and failed. "Do you want me to drag you off the ice?"

"Okay."

"Otogi, you idiot!" She dropped his hand. "You'll get skated on!"

He opened his eyes. "Oh, why did you let go? Your hands are so nice and warm…"

Hitomi blushed furiously. "You… argh!!" She turned around and left the rink.

"Hey! You can't just leave me here!" Otogi managed to scramble to his feet and pulled himself across the wall to the exit of the rink. Hitomi was there, waiting for him. "Hey, why do you get so mad? I try to compliment you, and this always happens!"

She scowled up at him. "You're lucky I waited for you."

"_Why_ did you have any reason not to?" He tore off his skates with relief. "There was no excuse for you to get mad at me!"

"Because… I don't like you." She walked out the doors into the fresh air, and he followed. "However…" She turned around and looked into his face. "I suppose I don't hate you, either."

"As long as you're happy," he laughed.

Hitomi gasped and ran into the clearing in the park, looking up at the sky. "Otogi, look! It's snowing!"

He stood beside her. "Why is it snowing in April?"

"Well, it won't stick, I know that…"

"Right…" Otogi looked down, straight into those beautiful cinnamon eyes, which then started tearing up. "What's wrong?"

"Otogi…" she moved closer to him, "I'm starting to fear what you said about this date…"

"Oh, Hitomi-chan…" He offered a hug, which she willingly walked into. "What's so bad about me?"

Hitomi buried her face into his chest. "It's… I hate you…"

He sighed, and stroked her hair. "You tell yourself that, but is there really a reason that you hate me?"

"Of course… It's…" She paused. No matter how hard she thought, she couldn't remember why she had started hating him. Why did she hate him…?

Otogi pushed her away a bit and stroked her face. "You know how I feel about you. I'm willing to wait an eternity or more for you to sort our your feelings."

"Otogi…" She lifted her head to look into his face. "You have snow in your hair…"

He chuckled. "I know. I don't care, I'm here with you."

Hitomi slowly closed her eyes. "You… I…" _What am I doing?_

Otogi leaned in, then stepped away. "Hitomi-chan, the thing about you is that you try to decide what your emotions are before they know what they are themselves. Think it over, I'll be waiting for you…"

She opened her eyes, stunned, and watched him walk away. "O… Otogi, you idiot! I hate you!!"

He gave her a short wave without turning around. "Think about it!"

***

Hitomi entered her room and flopped onto her bed.

__

Oh, I'm being so stupid… she thought. _I don't know, but… while I was unaware, he became dear to me…_

***

I wanted to make it snow.

Hey, maybe I should have a DIFFERENT separating thingie between the story and my notes?

Now, don't you guys jump to any conclusions or anything. Tomorrow's a new day! (Maybe I'll have the next chapter up tomorrow…)  
Anyway, here's the picture I mentioned in the beginning notes that nobody reads. http://www.boomspeed.com/yugi_h_2_oh/skating.jpg  
Okay, now here are my rants about it! ^^  
First off, I didn't feel like totally screwing Otogi up, so I just drew a blobbish thing that barely resembles him. I've never drawn him before, really… Oh, and he's not wearing his regular clothes because it's COLD. WOW!  
Hitomi, um… her head is squished. And there's supposed to be a wall there. And I think I've been being a little lax on the fingers… Hitomi only has four on each hand, and Otogi has none. His hands are just blobs.  
I'm going to rant more about Otogi. More than just Otogi himself, I didn't want to draw his FACE. That was good, since he's supposed to be face down anyway! *smiles*  
Okay, one last thing to rant about… isn't my handwriting atrocious? And I _do_ write in italics when needed. Aren't I a freak? Well, maybe I'm not the only person who writes in italics by hand… but there sure were a bunch of people wishing that they could a few days ago in History class!! (My school is so incredibly random… one Friday we were let out 15 minutes early because "we won the state championships." We didn't, by the way.)

Um… I think that's it. Oh! One more thing!  
I wasn't going to respond to any reviews this chapter, but I have one that is bothering me (not in a bad way, though).  
Mutou Yasu- After reading your review, I seriously considered what you said, and pondered over Otogi's actual personality and whether or not I was making him out of character again. Then I remembered how he acts around Shizuka-chan after he comes into Battle City (See? I'm being serious and not calling it Batoru SHTEE!!!), and decided that he would actually act that way over a girl. (Basically, in Battle City, he acts almost exactly like Honda, except a bit more… erm… slick? I dunno… He and Honda actually are around each other a lot, but probably more because they're rivals over Shizuka-chan's love and are trying to prevent the other from making a move. :D Otogi's a bit more successful with her, because he can tell when Honda is about to try to score points with her, and then jumps in before he can say more than five words, stealing Honda's act. I'm sure they're both heartbroken when Shizuka-chan falls for Seto… and then they find support in each other and sleep in the same bed and fall off a blimp together… but I won't get to that.) I'm not sure if you have seen any Battle City episodes with Otogi yet, since there's still several to go until 4Kids dubs them… but there's the possibility that you might have Japanese DVDs (like me!) or have downloaded some episodes… yeah… I'll stop talking now.

Why am I suddenly referring to her with the -chan suffix?

Next Chapter  
Chapter 5: Suki? Chigau na! (Love? That's not it!)


	5. Christmas Special!

12/24- Hello, all! Merry Christmas, or whatever holiday you might celebrate around this time! *smiles* This is the Christmas Special for Cinnamon Eyes, and it has nothing to do with the current storyline. At all. It's like a big ol' omake, and for that reason there will NOT be an omake at the bottom! :P The real story, as I've said before, takes place in April, and since Christmas is in… December… It's obvious that this wouldn't really happen. I doubt that it will even make much sense… *shrug*  
My only regret is that I couldn't have waited until after chapter 4 to put this out. The reason for that is because this would take place after Hitomi becomes doubtful of her feelings towards Otogi. YES, I just gave you a huge spoiler! It doesn't matter; you knew it was going to happen, anyway! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Anyway, who bothers to read the Author's notes? This section is only for my benefit, really! If you read this section, then say "OYAJIDE AND ONPU SHOULD BE TOGETHER!!!" in your review. Because they SHOULD!!  
Oh, and… Ojamajo Doremi is the bomb. EMAIL TOKYOPOP AND TELL THEM TO TRANSLATE OJAMAJO DOREMI MANGA! MY INPUT ALONE WON'T WORK!!!  
But of course you WON'T. I bet you don't even know what Ojamajo Doremi is!  
Oyajide is the best.

12/27- Twenty million Hitomi fans around the country! Sorry to keep you waiting!! (This is an inside joke, sort of. This was said at the beginning of the preview for the episode where Yami and Anzu go on a "date," except "Anzu" was said where I put "Hitomi". It's amusing because we ALL know there aren't that many Hitomi fans OR Anzu fans… Are there even that many Yu-Gi-Oh fans in Japan…?) Sorry I didn't get this up on time. My parents found it incredibly amusing to ban me from the computer starting Christmas Eve. Their reasoning included mysterious phrases such as "homework," "five books," and "reading." Hmmm…  
Also, I have been trying to keep the inserted Japanese to a minimum in this story, but this chapter seems to have a little more than usual… because there are some puns that, when translated to English, would be lost.

****

Cinnamon Eyes

Christmas Special

"Help!" Princess Hitomi yelled to her friends, who were several hundred meters below her. "She's trapped me! Save me from the clutches of Majokeiko!!"

"Hitomi!" Yuugi, dressed in silver armor, pressed his hands to the Chaos Shield and craned his head upwards.

"Our cards have been stolen, Hitomi-chan!" Honda yelled up to her. He, too, was dressed as a knight. "None of us have the capabilities to remove the shield!"

"Hiro-kun, was it Majokeiko?!" She directed her Seiyaryuu to descent towards the ground, after failing to find an end to the cylindrical prison.

"Probably," growled Jounouchi, the court jester.

"She let you keep that card, Hitomi-san?" Anzu the tailor asked as Hitomi tried again to direct the rose-scaled dragon to fly lower.

"SHE USED THE SWORDS OF REVEALING LIGHT ON SEIYARYUU WHILE I WAS IN THE AIR!!!"

Everybody groaned.

"Don't fall off, then!" A snow-colored dragon outside of the barrier appeared in front of her, and the icy-eyed rider smiled. It was Kaiba Seto, the wealthy merchant. "Dragon scales can be slippery."

"Seto-kun…"

"Kaiba-kun!" Yuugi yelled up to the boy. "You have your Blue Eyes! Do you have the rest of your deck?!"

Kaiba scowled at his arch-rival. "No, I don't! That witch stole them, and I'm going to get them back! And don't follow me!!" He pointed his dragon upwards, and they flew into the cloudy oblivion.

"I'll save you, Hitomi-chan!"

Recognizing the voice, Hitomi moaned, "Oh, no…"

Prince Otogi leapt off his steed and pulled out a deck of cards. "These cards are the only ones left in the kingdom…" He selected a magic card, and held it up. "De-spell!"

The barrier and swords disappeared, but various flying monsters automatically surrounded Hitomi and Seiyaryuu. "Otogi, don't do any more! I'm fine!!"

"Ridiculous!" He pulled out another magic card. "BLACK HOLE!!!"

"WHAT??!?" Everyone screamed at him in unison.

"Don't worry, it only sucks up the monsters! Hitomi-chan is perfectly safe!" The monsters all fizzled away, and the princess instantly started falling, having lost her dragon. "Oops." Seeing his mistake, Prince Otogi ran to catch her. She landed lightly in his arms, and they were then transported to a setting with flowery, bubbly, pastel surroundings.

"Ryuuji-kun…" Hitomi looked up into his eyes lovingly. "Thank you so much… for saving me…"

The raven-haired boy just chuckled and brought his face closer to hers. "Welcome to my otogibanashi."

Without giving it another thought, the princess slowly lifted her head up, and her soft, moist lips reached…

"NOOOOOOO!!!!!" Hitomi sat bold upright in her bed, covered in a cold sweat. She looked towards the clock. Four o'clock on a Sunday morning. December 24, the start of winter vacation.

She sighed and fell back onto her pillow. _What was with that dream?_ She covered her face with her arms, and tried to get back to sleep. _It made absolutely no sense! Nobody acted like themselves, either… and I would never willingly kiss Otogi…_ She touched her lower lip. _Still… How would it feel? How would his lips taste?_ She blinked her eyes and hit herself over the head. _GRR! What am I thinking?! I hate him!_ "I HATE OTOGI!!!"

The neighborhood dogs started howling, and a shoe soon banged into her window, followed by a voice ordering her to shut up. _Otogi… _Hitomi ignored these events, and brought her sheets over her head. _That dream is not true! I don't like Otogi!_ She sighed. _What am I taking it so seriously for? It's just a stupid dream. Like stupid Otogi._ She turned over and was silent for several minutes. Then she sat up again.

"HE WON'T GET OUT OF MY HEAD!! Okay, if I'm going to think of a boy, it should at least be a boy that I can tolerate." She pulled out a piece of paper and a pen, and quickly drew three stick figures. One had a triangular head and a big smile, and the second had a huge frown and fangs. It was facing a smaller, widely smiling stick figure, with large pointed hair and long, pointed bangs. "There! Hiro-kun, Seto-kun and Yuugi-kun! That's better!" She stood the picture up against the lamp on her bedside table, and rested on her pillow again, smiling and staring at it. Then she knocked the picture off. "ARGH! No boys! I must concentrate on SCHOOL!" She grabbed a textbook and stood it up on her bedside table. She laid down again, smiling at the book with a slightly crazed grin. "THERE!! I'll sleep now!"

An hour later, she was still awake. She dragged herself out of bed, unable to get back to sleep, and decided to wrap the presets for her friends.

"Okay, let's see…" She pulled out various bags and sorted through them. "This is for Yuugi-kun, this is for Jounouchi, this is…"

***

At a quarter to eleven, Hitomi headed towards the Kame Game Shop, carrying six presents, neatly wrapped. Overestimating the time it took to walk there, she walked in the door five minutes later.

A wrinkly, bearded face appeared in front of her. "WELCOME!! Are you another one of Yuugi's lovely friends?"

Hitomi's eye twitched. "What do you…"

"Ahh, Hitomi!" Yuugi appeared behind his grandfather in blue pajamas covered with yellow stars. "Um… you're kind of early…" He blushed and headed towards the stairs. "I just… I have to get dressed… I've been too busy setting up to get dressed."

She giggled, and nodded. "That's alright; I'm sorry I came so early."

"No, no, that's okay!!" Yuugi waved his hands in front of his face. "It's my fault, you're only ten minutes early! I should have known that people might come a little early."

"Yuugi-kun…" Hitomi crossed her arms in pretend frustration, "stop taking the blame and just get dressed."

He nodded vigorously and started running up the stairs.

Hitomi called after him, "I like your pajamas! They're very cute!!"

A thump was heard as Yuugi slipped. "They're not cute! I'm not cute! You're… he… NOT BEING CUTE NOTHING!!!"

"Oh, I missed seeing Yuugi in his pajamas." Seto came through the door and sighed mockingly. "Were they embarrassing?"

Hitomi smiled up at the CEO. "They were _very_ cute."

"NOT CUTE!!!"

"Ahh…" Kaiba set seven small packages on the counter. He motioned towards them, seeing that she was staring at them. "They're not worth my time and money. I just got everybody something because I am a man of manners."

She put her hands on her hips sarcastically. "Surely you don't mean that for _everybody_?"

Seto just winked.

"Hey… Seto-kun…" Hitomi was still looking over his gifts. "Seven? There's me, you, Yuugi-kun, Jounouchi, Hiro-kun, Mazaki, and Bakura… did you get a present for yourself?"

"If I did, it would be much bigger."

"True… who else is coming then?"

Seto shrugged. "I think that Otoki person."

"It's Otogi… wait, WHAT?!"

At this point, Yuugi entered the room again. "Oh, hello, Kaiba-kun! And Anzu and Jounouchi-kun and Honda-kun…"

"Oh!" Hitomi spun around. "Jounouchi's here!"

Seto sneered. "Loser dog…"

She walked up to Jounouchi, her hands behind her back, and looked up at him sweetly. "Hello, Jounouchi!"

"Erm…" he glanced left and right. "Hel- ARGH!!!" Honda had sneaked behind the blonde and jammed on a Santa hat. Full of snow.

The room erupted with laughter.

Jounouchi spun around and grabbed Honda by the collar of his turtleneck. "Whad'dya think you're DOING?!"

Honda smiled and waved. "Merry Christmas!"

"Ohh…" Jounouchi let go of Honda and started brushing snow off. "Where did you get this snow, anyway? It's not snowing…"

"I made it." Hitomi smiled sweetly, then frowned and spun around to face Yuugi. "YUUGI!! Did you invite Otogi?!"

Yuugi, looking slightly startled, answered, "Y-yes, I did…"

"Oh, that's right." Honda lifted a bag, and emptied it of its contents. Thirteen boxes of varying sizes were soon piled up. "Otogi said he's going to be a little late, so he gave me his presents. He said to start the present exchange without him. Those are mine, and those are his." He pointed to the two opposite sides of the pile.

Anzu crossed her arms. "Since when are you so chummy with Otogi?"

"Ahh… well…" Honda blushed. "I figured that maybe, if I was around him sometimes, then at least one of his fans would notice my handsome face."

Jounouchi glared at him. "Given up on my sister?"

"Ahh!! Lovely Shizuka!!"

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!?" Jounouchi soon had Honda in a headlock. "Honda, you bas-"

"Hello, there!" said a pleasant voice.

Yuugi ran between Honda and Jounouchi, separating them, to reach the door. "Bakura-kun! Hello! Come on in!!" He turned to everyone else. "Go get comfortable in the living room, and I'll get the snacks!"

"OKAY!!" Everyone quickly threw off their shoes, if they hadn't already, and ran to the living room, quickly claiming their own spot. Sugoroku came in as well, and sat himself between Hitomi and Anzu.

Yuugi soon walked in with a platter of choufu, jonainagashi, and other snacks. Setting it down, everyone cheered "itadakimasu!" and started eating.

"Yuugi, do you have any healthier foods for your friends?" asked Sugoroku.

Yuugi smiled. "Nope!"

"Yuugi, did you make these all by yourself?" Anzu held up a flower-shaped jonainagashi. "It looks too good to eat!"

Yuugi blushed. "Yeah… thanks…"

"Is Otogi REALLY coming?!" Hitomi asked in a panic.

Everyone nodded.

"BUT I DIDN'T GET HIM A PRESENT!!!"

Everyone stared at her, and she blushed.

"Um… I… That's not meant the way it sounds! But it would be rude to give everyone a present but him. I hate Otogi! Okay, I'll go get him a present now." She left, and heard them all chuckling behind her.

***

Hitomi wandered down the streets, peering in shop windows. She scolded herself for not realizing that she could have easily gotten a suitable gift for Otogi at Yuugi's home. _Well, I'm already here, so I might as well look around. If I don't find anything, I'll go back to the shop and get him something there…_ She looked in the window of a nearby bakery and sighed. _He has a bunch of gaming things, anyway…_ She passed by an arcade, a jewelry shop, a music store… then saw a tall, black-haired boy come around the corner.

__

Shoot! She ran into the nearest store- a craft shop- and watched Otogi pass by. She sighed, relieved that he didn't see her.

"Welcome!"

"Huh?" Hitomi turned around and saw a kind-looking woman standing behind the counter. "Oh, hello! I'm sorry to barge in like that." She gave the woman a half-bow.

"Can I help you find something?" She emerged from the register and walked towards Hitomi. She was at least a head shorter than her customer was. "We have items made by various artisans. You'll probably find something that you'd like."

"I don't know… I didn't intend on buying something here, just hiding from… a stalker, you could say." She giggled, inspecting a very intricate candleholder, made of clear glass swirled with several various other colors. "So you get things from all around the world?"

"Yes, but a lot of the things here were made by me."

"Wow…" Hitomi was bent over, looking at a thick bracelet engraved with hieroglyphics and other Egyptian symbols, looking like something that would be worn by a pharaoh. _I should have gotten this for Yuugi-kun… he seems to like Egyptian things… _She stood back up and took a slow look around the little shop. "I'm sorry, but I don't think you have anything that would work… Thank you so much, though!" She smiled and bowed again.

"Come back anytime!" said the woman as Hitomi started walking out the door.

"Oh, I will, thank…" Hitomi stopped short and peered at a figurine that was placed in the window. She hadn't noticed it when she was outside, since she was in a panic to hide. "Do you think I could have a closer look at that right there, if you don't mind?"

The woman walked over and picked it up. "This?" She handed it over, and Hitomi inspected it. It was a ceramic figure of a white horse, and riding on top was a prince wearing elegant clothing. Every detail was paid attention to: the pattern on the clothing, the mane on the horse, the glittering eyes, even the individual barbs and barbules on the feather in the prince's hat was paid much attention to. The ebony-haired prince had a detailed, serious face, permanently stuck with a small straight mouth, which seemed to smile despite the shape, because of his bright cobalt eyes. _This is perfect…_

Hitomi looked at the woman again. "How much is it?"

"Four thousand yen," she smiled.

"Eeeeeh?!" She gaped. "Um… well…"

"And I'll gift-wrap it for free."

Hitomi put on a contemplative face. _Augh… that's more than I want to spend on HIM, but… I suppose he'd get me something of equal or greater value, knowing him… I guess it's only fair…_ She handed it back to the woman. "I'll take it, gift-wrapped, please."

"All right, then." The woman offered another smile, and Hitomi effortlessly smiled back. She fished out the money as the woman was wrapping the present, and soon realized that she was smiling from ear to ear and blushing. She was too giddy to stop. _Hitomi, get a hold of yourself…_

"Is this for your stalker?" asked the woman as she handed the box to Hitomi.

"Ahh…" Blushing even more, she quickly ran out the door. "Thank you!"

But she couldn't stop giggling on her way back to the Game Shop.

***

"Hitomi-chan!!!" Otogi stood up as she walked in the door. "You're here! I've missed you so much!!"

She took her coat and shoes off, and walked into the living room. "You saw me in school yesterday, Otogi…" she sighed.

"But that was for such a short time!"

Everyone rolled their eyes.

Yuugi gestured to the small pile of remaining presents. "We opened all the presents except for the ones to you and the ones from you… I hope you don't mind…"

"Pfft…" Hitomi waved her hand. "I don't care." Then she smiled. "Don't be shy! Open my presents if you want!"

On cue, they shuffled through the pile to find the ones marked as theirs. Everyone was soon pushed away as if a bomb had exploded in the presents, and Jounouchi stood up, victoriously holding up a small package. "I GOT IT!!!"

Honda leaned on his hand. "That's great, Jounouchi, but you didn't have to scatter the other presents all over the room in the process."

"What do you mean? That's good! Now we don't have to all be crowded together!!" He tore the paper off. "You got me… dice…"

Hitomi shrugged. "I was on a low budget."

Jounouchi suddenly appeared next to her and nudged her in the side. "Low budget, huh? You probably got them from Otogi for free!" He gave her a devious grin.

"Um… no…"

"I would have if you'd asked, Hitomi-chan…" Otogi stood to the other side of her. "Don't be afraid to talk to me. I won't bite." He thought a bit, then added. "Well, maybe if…"

"Stop thinking gross, Otogi!" Hitomi fumed. "Never in a million years! Why can't you be innocent and cute like Yuugi?!"

"NOT CUTE NEVER!!!" yelled Yuugi, holding the rabbit plush that Hitomi had given him.

Everyone stared at him. "Uh-huh…"

Kaiba thumbed through the ridiculously thick book that he had just received. "I think I already read this… but thank you, Hitomi."

"Yeah, thanks for my book, too!" exclaimed Honda from the other side of the room, waving a book entitled '101 Tricks and Pranks to Pull on Your Friends.'

Anzu sat back down in a chair. "I love the bear, Hitomi-san!" She hugged it close.

"Wow, Kawara, you must have gone to a total of… what… two stores?"

Everyone stared at the source of the comment. "BAKURA WAS SARCASTIC?!"

He blinked his huge, innocent eyes. "Well, look, she only got books and toys." He held up his plush elephant. "And WHY did I get an elephant?"

Everyone shrugged, and a few people giggled.

"Hey…" Otogi crossed his arms. "Hitomi-chan didn't get me anything!"

"Oh… uh… yeah… here." She handed the box over. "I grabbed it at the last minute, so don't get any ideas."

He opened the box and took out the figure. Everyone stared at it in awe.

"Ah, yes, low budget." Jounouchi nodded knowingly. "You wanted to save your money for your boyfriend."

"NO!!" She stepped on his foot. "Freak! I hate him!!"

"Thank you, Hitomi-chan," smiled Otogi. "It's just like a fairytale prince."

Hitomi looked back at him, and then blushed, remembering her dream. "Yeah, whatever." She walked around the room, gathering the remaining scattered presents. "Can I open mine now?"

***

All of her presents that she received were small, at least in size. Yuugi had given her two packs of Duel Monsters cards, as could be expected. Jounouchi, Honda and Bakura gave her gift certificates to bookstores, but they were considerably different in cost. Anzu made a charm bracelet with glass beads and pewter charms. Seto gave her a gift that looked like it was a small piece of paper wrapped in wrapping paper.

"Wow, Seto-kun, you gave me the smallest gift you had. I feel SO special." Everyone laughed a bit at this, and she opened it to see that it was… a small piece of paper wrapped in wrapping paper. On it, Seto had neatly written, 'As you are the only one at the party that I tolerate, I will give you a better present when they are not around.' She rolled her eyes and counted the gifts up. "Six…" She closed her eyes, expecting what was coming. "Oh, goodness, who am I missing."

"ME!!!" Otogi walked over and handed her a small box. "I looked long and hard for something that would suit your beauty."

She sighed, and tore the paper off. Upon opening the lid, she couldn't help but gasp. "It's so pretty!" She took out a golden necklace, strung with a dark, teardrop-shaped ruby, which was surrounded on the edges with clusters of tiny diamonds.

"It matches your eyes." Otogi took the necklace from her hands and unclasped it, standing behind her.

Blushing furiously, with the others watching on, she said, "I… I can put it on myself!"

He chuckled and moved in front of her. "No." As he wrapped his arms around her neck, she blushed an even deeper red, noticing how close her face was to his. _It probably matches my face, too…_

Overwhelmed by the rush of blood mixed with the scent of his hair, a unique smell that she couldn't place, she began to feel a little dizzy. "O… Otogi…"

He laughed in the back of his throat and moved his hands to rest on her shoulders, right where they met her bare neck. "It's perfect."

She felt his breath on her skin, and her eyes closed. _Otogi, you idiot…_ She fell forwards, and was quickly caught by the one she would have least- or most, she wasn't sure- desired to have caught her.

"Ahh, she fainted!" Honda brushed the pink hair out of her face and laughed. "She must have really fallen for you, Otogi!"

"Literally," joked Jounouchi. He received a rare laugh from the others.

"Ahh, what should I do?" Otogi hung his head backwards. "I don't want to bring her to her home, because her parents might think I drugged her or got her drunk or something…"

"I know!" Sugoroku held up a finger. "You can take her to your home! Because you know the Christmas tradition…" He elbowed Otogi, who was blushing furiously.

"That's worse than drugs or alcohol…" muttered Anzu.

"Hohohohohoho!! Come on, my boy, you know you want to!!" Sugoroku slapped Otogi on the back, and was then attacked by the others.

"In case you're serious, I do not want to do that. Yet. Neither she nor I are ready."

Yuugi folded his arms. "I think you should, Otogi-kun."

Otogi was so startled he nearly dropped Hitomi. "Yuugi! What?!"

"Take her to your home, I mean. She shouldn't be out for that long." He smiled. "It's innocent enough."

Otogi looked down at the girl sleeping peacefully in his arms. He lightly kissed the top of her hair. _I won't let any harm come to you. That's my otogibanashi._

***

Aww, that's so sweet! I really didn't see that ending coming. I'm serious. I never plan out what I'm going to write before I sit down to write it :P  
Until I got halfway through, I had no idea what Hitomi was going to get Otogi. Then I thought that I should have a better reason for her to have that dream than "I wanted to put it there."  
I think I'll up the rating to PG-13… *does that*  
Oh, "otogibanashi" is the Japanese word for "fairytale." You get that word when you add the kanji for "story" at the end of Otogi's name. Also, "itadakimasu" is a traditional Japanese blessing said before eating. Choufu is a rice cake wrapped in a light cake. Jonainagashi is a sweet made out of mashed white beans. "Majo" means "witch," and "Majokeiko" is sort of my tribute to Ojamajo Doremi (the witches all have "majo" in front of their names).  
I think I covered everything. This chapter has some really good quotes that I need to put in my nee-san's quote book. Such as, "I hate Otogi! Okay, I'll go get him a present now."  
I think you can guess the adult Japanese Christmas tradition. If you can't, good for you.  
  
I WANT YUUGI'S PAJAMAS!!!


	6. Suki? Chigau na!

1/23/03- You know, these college people keep mentioning that they sent me brochures and letters in real mail, but have I been receiving any? Nooo…  
Whatever. I'm going to save my rants for in the omake section, which has ANOTHER drawing by me!! (Not related to this fic this time…)  
(at less than two pages done) Um… this one has a lot of scene changing…  
And, no, I'm not removing that note :P

****

Cinnamon Eyes

Hitomi woke up Monday morning, the events of the weekend pounding in her head. The pounding could have very well been her collision with the wall, of course.

__

What was I thinking? she scolded herself. _I almost let myself be kissed by him. It wouldn't be that bad if it were just his doing, but I practically asked him to! _She got out of bed and got ready for school, convincing herself that Otogi had drugged her or hypnotized her or something of the sort.

***

She walked into the classroom and was surprised to see the majority of the class already there.

"What's going on?" she demanded, crossing her arms.

"Nothing!" exclaimed one boy. "What makes you think we're doing anything?"

"You're all huddled together and the only people not present in your little group of fun are Otogi and me."

"What about me?" Hitomi twirled around to see Otogi standing behind her. "Have you thought about what I said at all, Hitomi-chan?"

"I hate your guts."

"Aha. Keep thinking." He brushed past her and sat down in his seat.

She stared after him for a bit. _That Otogi! He makes no sense! He's drooling all over me one day, and the next day he's acting as if he doesn't care!_

***

Their homeroom teacher stood at the head of the class, looking over his students. "You all know that the Sakura Matsuri is going to be held soon." The entire class tittered with excitement, and he continued. "It's a little late this year, due to the cold weather, delaying the cherry blossoms' blooming. The festival is next Saturday, and each homeroom is to prepare a booth, and we need to elect two captains to-"

Twenty-eight hands pointed to two specific people.

"Alright, Otogi and Kawara… whatever ideas you may have for the booth are to be submitted to them…"

The entire class gaped at the selected captains. Neither one of them was showing the expected response; Otogi wasn't jumping out of his seat in glee, Hitomi wasn't shouting in protest. Both wore the same calm, bored expression.

__

Ridiculous, conniving classmates… Hitomi sighed, and got ready for the first class.

***

"Hi, Yuugi-kun!" Hitomi popped her head into the room. "Can I eat with you guys again?"

"Sure! Come on in!"

"Can I, too?!" Otogi popped his head in, imitating Hitomi.

They looked at her, who only shrugged. "Fine. I don't care."

"So!" Honda clapped his hands together. "Who's paying today?"

"I am!" Yuugi pulled out the lunch money.

Hitomi perched herself on a desk, as usual. "Why don't you each just bring in your own money each day?"

Anzu sighed. "That would make the most sense, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah, well, we don't like sense!" Jounouchi struck a pose.

Otogi chuckled. "Is that why your classwork is so abysmal?"

Jounouchi blinked, thinking that over, then realized it was an insult. "HEY!!"

"I'm only kidding with you." He waved it off. "Yuugi-kun, I'll go get the lunches if you want. I'll pay for me and Hitomi."

"Sure, Otogi-kun." Yuugi passed him the money, and Otogi left the room. Then he turned to Hitomi. "You seem to be on relatively good terms."

She shrugged, and Anzu giggled. "Well, we're both the captains in our class for the-"

"Ah! The Cherry Blossom Festival!" Yuugi smiled. "Kaiba-kun and I are the captains for our class."

Honda smirked. "It's only natural. We'd want the most strategic and creative students running the program, of course."

Hitomi stared. "Kaiba… Seto? He's in your class?"

"Right here." The unnoticed boy in the corner waved without taking his eyes off the screen of his laptop.

"Oh. Hello!"

He paused, then turned to look at her. "I already waved."

Anzu rolled her eyes. "He's always like that, Hitomi-san. Just ignore him."

Yuugi seemed to shrink a bit in his chair. "Yeah…"

"Yeah, but," Jounouchi started, "he's going to have to be a bit more social for the festival."

Yuugi looked even more uncomfortable. "Um, that's really not necess-"

Seto sighed, stood up, and shut his laptop. "Fine." He walked over and stuck his hand out. "I'm Kaiba Seto. It's nice to meet you."

Hitomi smiled and shook his hand. "I'm Kawara Hitomi. Do you mind if I call you Seto-kun?"

He blinked, taken aback. "Um… I guess… it's okay…"

"Hey, that's not fair!" Otogi marched back in with a few boxes, a white-haired boy following with the rest. "You just met him and you're on given name basis! But it's all 'Otogi' with me! Even after you almost kiss-"

Hitomi quickly covered his mouth, and the others stared. "Um, it's nothing!" Out of the corner of her mouth, she ordered him to be quiet. He responded by kissing the palm of her hand. "Augh! Otogi, you…"

Everyone was staring again, and she blushed. "Um… um… who's that?" She pointed to the boy she hadn't met.

He smiled and bowed. "Hello. I'm Bakura Ryou. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Otogi looked at Bakura, then at Hitomi. "Oh, and you're going to call him Ryou-kun now, huh?"

"Um…" Hitomi stood there, looking Bakura over. _Something's odd about him…_ "No, I think I'll call him Bakura."

"WHY?! Can you tell how you're going to like a person when you first look at them?!"

"Um… no…"

Bakura watched on obliviously.

Otogi peered into Hitomi's face for a little while, then broke out in a smile. "Well, that's better, then! It won't be as confusing when you start calling me Ryuu-kun!!"

She gritted her teeth. "Who says I'm ever going to call you that!?"

"I do!"

"Oh, quiet, you." Honda took the lunches from Otogi and passed them out. "Lunch will be over soon, so let's eat!"

"Um…" Bakura took a box and opened it. "Could someone explain what is going on with Otogi-kun and… um… what's your name?"

"Kawara Hitomi, and it's a long story." She snatched the box that Otogi was handing her. "You better not have put anything 'special' in here for me…"

Anzu laughed. "I don't think they're even telling us that whole story…"

"There's nothing more to it, Mazaki!" She waved her hand, blushing. "All it is that Otogi loves me and I hate him!"

"That's really not much of a long story," Seto commented, stealing some rice from Jounouchi's lunch.

"Oy! Kaiba!"

"Shut up, you loser dog…"

Yuugi then spoke up. "Well, I know that there's more to it than just that…" He sat up in his chair. "But I think there's even more to it than I know…"

"That's right! You two went on a date!" Honda winked and nudged Otogi in the side. "Well, tell us what happened…!"

Otogi looked a little uncomfortable. "Um, well…"

"I'm warning you, Otogi, if you say a _word_…"

"Aha!" Jounouchi jumped over Yuugi's desk to stand right in front of Hitomi. "Something must have happened, then, if you want to be so secretive!"

"Jounouchi-kun, my desk isn't a hurtle…"

Seto scoffed. "Leave her alone, nameless one."

"Hey! Who's the nameless one…!!"

Yuugi had to duck as his desk went flying over him, just nearly missing Seto. "Jounouchi-kun!!" He ran in front of him and attempted to prevent him from advancing, while Honda and Bakura held him by the arms.

"Let me go! I'll get that…!"

"Jounouchi, don't!" Honda struggled to keep Jounouchi's right arm in control. "Bakura, you okay over there?!"

"I… um…" He was looking as if he were using all the strength he could to keep Jounouchi back.

"Jounouchi!" Anzu grabbed the back of his collar. "Don't do this, we're in school!"

"You guys, let go, I'm going to beat him…!"

Hitomi looked at Seto, who looked completely bored and unnerved by this event. "Um, do you guys need any help?"

"Ah! Hitomi-san!" Anzu let go of Jounouchi's collar and started ushering Otogi and Hitomi out. "You shouldn't get wrapped up in this, don't worry, everything's under control!" She took them to the door and gave them a weak smile. "This is normal, you two should get back to your class now, the bell's about to ring!" She closed the door.

Hitomi looked up at Otogi, who was staring at her strangely. "What?"

"Do you really believe everything that you said in there?" His face was completely serious.

Hitomi turned away. "What are you talking about?"

"You don't even know how you feel. You can't truly think that you do hate me."

She paused, then turned to look back at him. "You're right. I don't think I hate you." She stepped closer. "But don't think that what happened on Saturday is ever going to happen again."

He chuckled, and leaned down to lean his forehead on hers. "Then stand back. You're as close to me right now as you were then."

Hitomi blushed and pushed him away. "Don't think anything of it. It's not love." She turned around again and ran into the room as quickly as possible.

***

x_x Omake!! x_x

Hello! Sorry it took so long to get this chapter done. I've been watching lots of Gravitation… and Fruits Basket, but more Gravitation, when you consider that Furuba has double the amount of episodes that Gravitation has…  
I wouldn't suggest Gravitation unless you're over the age of… maybe 14. It has some adult themes… but I love the music! ^^  
Actually, I've been listening to a single song over and over again while writing this chapter. It's from Gravitation, in case YOU COULDN'T GUESS!!! It's called Rage Beat, and it's so good! You can download it from this site:  
http://www.maloca.com/isis/music2.html  
Just scroll down until you find the Gravitation section… Oh! But here are the lyrics to the second chorus!! (I decided to give you the SECOND chorus because it has "hitomi" in it and WHEE HEE HEE!!! I'm SO very easily amused!!!) I translated it, also, but I put absolutely no effort into it so it's probably not right at all. x_x 

Saka maku kodou kara  
Kirakira gin no Passion kakehiki dake yuuwaku  
Koware sou na kimi no hitomi ga ikeru DOA tataite  
Sagashi tsuzukeru You Just a New World

Coiling in reverse  
A shining silver passion with temptation as my only strategy  
Your seemingly broken eyes are traveling to the door more and more  
I'll step back and just continue to follow you in a New World

WHEE HEE HEE!!! Isn't that so fun?!

Yayayayay! At least I know that Anime*Angel reads this section…

AND! TAIYOU!! I'm not going to make it that easy for you and your brother!!! *smiles evilly*

Enough for the happy stuff, now, though. Because I'm going to rant. And if you don't like it, TOUGH!!

Oh, but first, here's another picture I drew. It's a character from one of my manga… Watching Gravitation has made me want to draw people singing, and she (her name is Himawari…) sings, and… yeah. I DREW IT DURING GIRL SCOUTS!!! (Girl Scouts ROCKS!!) (I'm just kidding. It stinks, especially when your leaders are completely unsupportive, biased racists.)  
http://www.boomspeed.com/yugi_h_2_oh/himawarising.jpg

Okay, now for the rant.  
Okay, so. There's this boy in my homeroom named… Makkusu (name has been changed) who is also one of the most active members in my school's anime club (of which I am an officer). Now, my school is really really big on sports, and we've won… at least twelve state championships during the… seventeen (?) years of its existence (our principal calls himself the "Champion Principal"… and he looks like Hitler). What does this have to do with anything? Well, you see, our entire homeroom just happened to be composed of jocks and cheerleaders. The only two people who are NOT a jock or cheerleader are Makkusu and I. So, since we're "artistic" instead of "athletic," we're sort of shunned off from the rest of our homeroom (they sit at the two round tables in the front of the room, and we sit… ON the two round tables in the back of the room). If that note in parentheses makes no sense, here's a diagram of our room:  
http://www.boomspeed.com/yugi_h_2_oh/room.jpg  
Just in case you're wondering, our high school has a preschool in it, and our homeroom is the preschool room.  
So, anyway, needless to say, Makkusu and I became pretty close. And he's kind and polite, too, not mean and rude like the jocks in our room who threaten to beat me up if I mark them absent… grr…  
Anyway, we became pretty close friends, and everyone thought that we'd get together or whatnot. (Some meant it more as an insult… such as the jocks and cheerleaders in our homeroom…) Nothing really happened, though, except that at his birthday party in September he started holding me close to him and holding my hand, but that's it. So once my friends found out (at least a month later…), they were convinced that he'd be my boyfriend and stupid stuff like that.  
Heck, I don't want a boyfriend.  
Anyway, in November he got together with a girl from my church, whom I will call Arisu. She's a senior, and nobody seems to like the fact that they're going out. They're literally connected at the hip (well, not literally, but… you get the idea). This is upsetting _everyone_ that they're friends with, because they can no longer have any time with them without the other. (Arisu's best friend, whom I've known since I was a freshman, is especially upset, and wants to "throw him [Makkusu] off a cliff.") Likewise, I haven't been talking to Makkusu recently, or vice versa, and he denies that anything is wrong when I ask him. And I can tell that something is bothering him.  
His relationship with her has also put me in some odd situations. For example, I was to read during the service on Christmas Eve at my church. Coincidentally, Arisu's family was to light the Christ candle, and sat in the front row. Now, of course, Arisu had to bring Makkusu along, which annoyed me, because they were talking to each other when they were supposed to be standing up and singing hymns, as well as the fact that I had to read with them right in front of my face.  
Now, when the new semester started, we got new classes and new lunch times. None of the classes I have are with any of my friends, save for art, which I have with Mab. It turned out that the lunch I had was with Makkusu (and a few of my other friends, whom I would prefer not to talk with, as their conversations tend to center around… things they do with their boyfriends…), and Arisu was not in that lunch. Now, I was happy, because I could finally socialize with Makkusu without Arisu around.  
Then, today, it turned out that Arisu had switched her third block class so that she could have the same lunch as Makkusu. The thing that annoyed me the most about that… no, wait, that's what annoyed me the most. The fact that Arisu is completely _obsessed_ with Makkusu. That's the kind of behavior that I see from girls that consider their boyfriend a material possession, and the main reason that I so not want a boyfriend. That _really_ annoyed me, because I only want the best for my friends and what will make them happy, even if I won't end up happy in the end.  
The thing that annoyed me second is that they went off to sit at _another_ table and left me alone. Actually, there were my other friends at the table with me, but they were quite a ways away from me, and, as I stated earlier, I'd rather not converse with them. And they ignored me, anyway.  
So, what did I do? In protest, I didn't eat. All I did was write out my chemistry homework (which then turned out to be the wrong assignment). Okay, I wasn't planning on eating anyway, since I wasn't hungry at all. Also, I made sure that I was making no eye contact with anyone, especially with Makkusu. Not that I could if I even tried, since Arisu was blocking him with her obsessive bulk.  
Okay, now that's mean. Sorry…  
Anyway, did anyone notice or care? No… And, mind you, I'm usually so very cheery and happy in school, I'd find it hard _not_ to notice. But that's just me. I mean, I actually pay attention to myself, unlike anyone else. And this was right after a rather upsetting Spanish class, which I will get to in a moment.  
Actually, I'll get to that now. See, we had to write some dialogue about something, I can't remember. I was in a group with the girl who sits next to me, and the girl who sits in back of me. This girl who sits in back of me obviously thinks that she's all high and mighty and knows everything, and speaks Spanish in _such_ a haughty tone, as if she is _perfectly_ fluent in the language, which she isn't. She won't let anyone correct her, either. So, we had to write this dialogue, and she basically took it upon herself to write the entire thing. Every fifth word had some sort of grammatical error or structure flaw, so I'd try to correct it, so that we wouldn't get any points deducted or anything. Each time, she'd just glare at me, and, if she couldn't find an excuse for it to be correct, she'd say, "Well, _fine!_"  
…Um, I sort of didn't make up the language here. I'm not coming up with these grammatical thingies off the top of my head, you know?  
What's even _more_ annoying is that this is a freshman. She's acting as if she knows everything, or at least more than me, and I'm a whole two grades ahead of her. Shouldn't she respect her elders or something along those lines? Not only that, I just _had_ Spanish last semester, so all this stuff is fresh in my mind, unlike most of the other students who haven't had it since at least June.  
Then this freshman (the root word of her Spanish name is "dulce," or "sweet." Ironic, no?) was yelling at me if I didn't read my lines on time, because I didn't hear _them_ because they were talking in basically a whisper. This got me extremely upset, and I cried for a few seconds. Not long, though. Because she's an idiot that I shouldn't get upset over.  
And _then_, after lunch, I had chemistry. I found out that I had done the wrong homework assignment. And on top of that, my teacher thinks I'm some complete idiot because I said you could find plasma in blood.  
Unfortunately, she had been talking about the _other_ plasma.  
Oh, and, by the way, both my parents are chemists. So is my grandfather, come to think of it.  
Shall I rant about what happened in chemistry yesterday? I think I will, since it's really quite amusing when you ignore the annoying factor.  
Well, our teacher was showing us the vinegar-in-baking soda experiment, and taking the gas that was released into a beaker and putting a candle out with that gas. As she was doing this, she asked, "What am I scooping into the beaker?"  
"Uhhhhhh…." said most of the class.  
"Water!" said some kid.  
"Carbon dioxide!" I said.  
She shook her head, saying, "No, no, no…" Then she rephrased it. "Okay, what gas is being let off by the reaction?"  
"Uhhhhhh…." said most of the class.  
"Carbon dioxide," I said.  
She shook her head, saying, "No, no, no…" Then she rephrased it. "Okay, what gas is it that extinguishes fire?"  
"Uhhhhhh…." said most of the class.  
"Carbon dioxide…" I said.  
She shook her head, saying, "No, no, no…" Then she said, "Okay, I'll tell you. It's carbon dioxide."  
I slammed my hands on my desk in frustration, and the girl next to me just looked at me with a _What in the world is she smoking?_ look.  
I'll take this opportunity to stress the fact that I have grown up under heavy influences of chemistry.  
I'll also take this opportunity to stress the fact that I was saying this in a reasonably loud voice.  
I'll _also_ take this opportunity to stress the fact that _I sit in the desk that is closest to the front._

I think I've finished with my ranting.

Luigi- YAY FOR PEOPLE WHO CAN RANT WITHOUT CURSING!!!!!

See you all next chapter!! *waves*

Next Chapter  
Chapter 6: Kangae Tsuzukenasai! (Keep on thinking!)


	7. Kangae Tsuzukenasai!

2/10/03- Oh my gosh, WHY did it take me so long to write this chapter?! I took me more than two weeks! GRR!!! Maybe it's because nothing really happened in this chapter, and it was BORING BORING BORING!!! Sorry to make you wait for nothing. And the next chapter won't come for a while, either… . Whatever. I managed to finish today because Kids WB is showing the DDM shows again and I got inspired. ^^ Yay, "Duke," whee!!! (Actually, I think the DDM episodes are dead boring. But it's fun to watch JUST because they're the episodes with the MOST oral attacks EVER!! *talks in a pouty baby voice like "Duke"* "I'm sorry that I had to do that, Yugi…!") I love the random help screen that just MAGICALLY appears after not being there the PREVIOUS episode! HAW HAW HAW!!!  
…  
DO ME A FAVOR?!?! PLEEEEAAAASSEE???? Take TOKYOPOP's survey for the next series to license and vote for Ojamajo Doremi, please? You can choose three, and if you can, also vote for Fruits Basket. ;D Vote with as MANY email addresses as you have!!! (I have five email addresses, so I voted FIVE times… no, SIX!! I used my brother's!! XD)  
http://www.tokyopop.com/news/surveys/survey.php?surveyid=1001

THANK YOU SOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!! If you vote for Ojamajo Doremi, and tell me, I'll draw you a 300x300 picture of your choice if you want!!! *pleads pleads pleads*

Okay, you don't really have to vote. Just something to do if you feel nice and want to cheer me up! :X 

****

Cinnamon Eyes

"You have a suggestion?" Hitomi looked at the boy standing in front of her desk. Hanada had never participated much in class discussions and was a bit on the slow side. Quiet and shy, his height reflecting his personality at 158 centimeters, he was the last person she'd expected a suggestion from.

"Woah, wait." Otogi ran to Hitomi's desk. "Hanada's got an idea for the booth?"

He nodded. "Uh… yeah."

The two class captains looked at each other. It was eight days before the festival, and needed to make a decision soon. After several suggestions, all of them on either end of the extreme- totally impossible or incredibly lame- they both had the same thoughts. _It can't be much better than the "take the water out of the bucket with a spoon" game._

"What's your idea?" Hitomi sighed.

"Well, um…" The small boy fiddled with his fingers. "Otogi's good with dice, right? So… maybe a dice gambling thing…"

Otogi raised an eyebrow and looked at his partner, who wore a similar expression. "Um… Hanada?"

"Yeah?"

"Gambling is illegal in Japan."

Hanada stood in silence for a moment. "Well… you don't have to gamble for money…"

"Hanada…" Hitomi covered her face with her hands and leaned back in frustration. "The point is that we're _trying_ to earn money."

"Wait, what?" Hanada blinked. "Isn't it that you can't gamble _for_ money? You can use money to gamble, but you can't get money in return… right?"

She looked up at Otogi, eyes wide. "That's right…"

"Hanada, do you have any specific examples for the gambling game?"

"Use dice."

"Yeah, I know, but," Otogi rubbed his temples, "do you have any specific ideas for a dice game?"

The boy shook his head. "Can't you come up with something, Otogi?"

***

"Can't I come up with something… it's really not that easy…" Otogi mumbled as he left school for the day. "It took me forever to perfect DDM…"

"Yeah, but this game isn't going to be as complex as DDM, is it?" He looked down to the auburn-haired girl at his side.

"Oh, Hitomi-chan, hi…" He sighed. "So, we're doing a dice gambling game. Have you got any ideas?"

Hitomi stood in front of him, pointing to her head and frowning. "Listen, I've been concentrating on schoolwork. There's no knowledge of games up here; I don't have time to waste on them. How do you think I lost to you in our duel?"

"If you knew you were that bad, why did you challenge me?" Otogi laughed.

"Because you're _annoying_!!" She reached in front of her face to grab the collar to his school jacket. "Well, Otogi, we have to think of something. Care to come to my house?"

He burst into smiles. "Really, Hitomi-chan?!?!?"

"Don't kill yourself, now." She smiled at him. "I'm not going to run this thing myself, you know. You have a change of clothes, or are you going to spend the day in your school uniform?"

"I've got a change."

***

Otogi scribbled sketches and ideas on paper, crossing most of them out, as Hitomi watched on. He looked up at her after a while. "Are you going to help at all, Hitomi-chan?"

"You know, I would…" she sat up, "but I sort of know nothing about dice."

"Ah, that could cause a problem."

"You think?"

He held out his hand. "Well, then, I'll teach you." From his hand he dropped a small cube. "That's a die. "

They sat still for a moment, Hitomi staring at him, who was smiling back.

"I know what a die is!" She threw it at him, and hit his forehead.

He chuckled. "I could have dodged that, but I wanted to see how your throw was. It's utterly horrible, Hitomi-chan."

"Well, of course!" She pouted. "If you're not going to help me, I'll leave you to do this on your own."

"I was kidding, relax…" He gave the die back to her. "See you have to sort of grip it in just the right way and throw it with the right force that will cause it to land where you want. Watch." He took a second one out of his pocket. "I'll try to roll a three, okay? Now, I'll grip it like this, and then…"

He rolled a three, and pointed at it ecstatically. "WOW! Hitomi-chan, will you look at that?! I ROLLED A THREE!!!"

"I noticed."

"Okay, now you try. Roll a three."

Hitomi formed her fingers around the cube, trying to imitate Otogi's demonstration. Then she threw the die, which landed on five.

Otogi came to the other side of the table and knelt behind her. "Here, I'll help you along so that you can get the right feel for it, okay?" He placed the die back in her hand, and helped to place her fingers in the right spots. Then he placed his hand over hers. "When I say so, let go of the die." He swung her arm and said, "Now!"

They let go, and the die rolled on the table, eventually landing on a three. "Yeah! You got it, Hitomi-chan!"

She blushed. "It was only with your help, though…"

"You know how to throw it now, though, you just have to remember the speed and slope of the throw." He looked at the clock. "Eh, it's getting close to dinnertime…"

"Really?" She checked her watch. "Yeah… but we still have to work on this, we've come up with nothing. You can stay for dinner, and we'll continue afterwards if you want."

"That's fine with me." He stood up, legs cramped from sitting on them for so long. "Hey, by the way, where are your parents? I haven't seen them at all…"

Hitomi walked to the kitchen and started opening cupboards. "They're at work. They won't be coming back until late tonight; neither of them finished high school, so they have to work really hard." She sighed. "How do noodles in a cup sound?"

"That's fine." Otogi hesitated, then went to join her in the kitchen. "So…" He tried to think of a way to keep the conversation going. "Is that why you study so hard?"

She nodded as she filled a kettle with water to boil. "That's mainly it, I guess. My mom dropped out in the middle of her junior year, and my dad never went to high school. They aren't home much, but I know they're working hard because they love me and are trying to support me."

Otogi stood behind her and hugged her around the waist. "They're not the only ones," he whispered in her ear.

Hitomi paused. "Are you proposing to me, Otogi?"

"What? NO! I didn't mean it like that!" he hissed quickly. He turned her around. "If I did, I'd be looking you in the face."

She blushed. "Um…"

Otogi sighed and walked out of the kitchen, throwing himself on the couch. "You're so confusing, Hitomi-chan…"

"Me?! You're the confusing one!" She took the boiling water off the stove and poured it into the cups. "You tell me that you'll wait for me while I think, but you _still_ continue to make moves on me! And the next minute you act as if you don't even care!"

"Is there something wrong with occupying myself while I wait?" he asked calmly.

"You indicated that you wouldn't bother me!" She threw the cup of noodles at him.

"Hey! That's hot!"

"I don't care!" She plopped down on a chair, scowling. Suddenly she burst out into a fit of giggles.

"What? What is it?!"

"It's you, Otogi!"

"What about me? What's so funny?!"

"It's just…" She tried to calm herself down enough to talk properly. "It's just you!"

"What?" He sat up. "I don't get it!"

"Neither do I!"

"What?! You…" He picked up a die and playfully threw it at her. "Take that!"

"Hey!" It skimmed past her ear and she grabbed it, throwing it back.

"Your throw is still horrible, Hitomi-chan!" He took two more and chucked them in her direction.

"You're so mean!" Soon they were engaged in an all-out dice-throwing war.

"Ow! That one almost went in my eye!"

"You almost got one in my mouth!"

"Lucky die…"

"WHAT?!"

"Hey! You can't throw five at once, Hitomi-chan! Fight fair!"

"Bite me!"

"I'd love to."

"SHUT UP! YOU IDIOT!!!"

***

"Otogi, it's ten o'clock." Hitomi's eyes drooped shut. "We're no closer to coming up with something than we were five hours ago."

She leaned her head on his shoulder, and he pushed her off. "Your fault."

"_My_ fault?!" She shook herself awake. "You're the lazy dice master who started throwing stuff!"

"Ah, well…" Otogi brushed some black hair out of his face. "The problem is that most dice gambling tricks have a low probability of winning."

"Ahh…"

"We don't want to get in trouble with anyone…"

"Mmm…" Hitomi's eyes closed again, and her head slammed onto the table. She blinked a few times, then shouted, "Oh my GOD!!"

"Hitomi-chan!" Otogi pulled her up and pushed her bangs up to look at her forehead. "Are you okay?!"

"Oh my god! It's so simple!" She didn't seem to notice her partner's worried actions. "Why didn't we think of it before? It's so simple and…" Hitomi swore out loud.

Otogi jumped. "Hitomi-chan! Oh, god, she's delirious!"

"I'm nor delirious, you idiot." She slapped her forehead. "Oh, god, we're so stupid…"

"Hey, now! I don't mind when you only call me stupid, but…"

"You're so weird!"

He grabbed her shoulders. "What's gotten into you?!"

Hitomi smiled up at him. "It's such a simple game, Otogi. Why didn't we think of it sooner?"

"You thought of a game?!"

"Yes!" She eagerly grabbed five dice, suddenly wide awake. "We have five dice, right? So, the player can choose one number from one to six, and how many times that number shows up on the roll is how many points they win. Since there are five dice, there's a pretty good probability that their number will show up. Now… how about four?" She threw the dice, which landed on 3, 5, 1, 4, and 3. "See? I got one four, so I win one point. We can have different prizes depending on how many times the number shows up!"

Otogi sat there, thinking. "Huh… I think that just might work! We'll have to roll the dice from a cup…"

"You'll teach me how to do that, right?"

"Of course!" he smiled. "But it's getting late, I should go home…"

"Nooooo!!!" she whined, clasping onto his arm. "I'm just getting into this!!"

He fidgeted uncomfortably. "But… well…"

"If it gets too late, you can stay and sleep on the couch or something."

Otogi stood up and scratched his head. "Do you think that'll be okay?"

"As I said, my parents get home really late," she replied, standing up as well. "They're always so tired, they don't notice anything."

He rubbed his chin and smirked. "So, you mean, they wouldn't even notice if we-"

"You pervert!" she cried, hitting him upside the head. Then she paused, blushing. "But, no, they wouldn't notice."

"That's so cool, Hitomi-chan!"

"You know what? I changed my mind. Go home."

Otogi crossed his arms. "I was just kidding, you know."

"I know," she smiled. "So was I."

He was silent a moment. "Kidding about what part…?"

"Oh use your head!" She grabbed a pillow from the couch and threw it at him.

Laughing, he caught it and tossed it back onto the couch. "Hey weren't you tired?"

"Not anymore! We know what we're doing, and now it's getting interesting!" She sat down again. "Okay, so, let's have a prize for if your number is on one die, a better one if on two or three dice, and the best for…"

"Wait, wait." Otogi sat back on the couch, putting his hands up. "Where are we going to be getting all these prizes?"

"Don't worry, you can leave that part to me."

He peered at her, then leaned back. "Okay, then. Since we're using five dice, we'll have to roll them from a cup. Go get one, I'll teach you how."

"Okay, then." She stood up and headed for the kitchen. "I'll make us some tea also, okay?"

"That'll be lovely…" he breathed.

"Okay, now, stop. You're really scaring me." She took the kettle off the stove and filled it up with water again. Turning back towards the living room, she said, "Okay, I have green tea and…" She trailed off, seeing Otogi sleeping on the couch.

She crossed her arms and walked back over, smiling. "Really, you're unbelievable." _He must have been tired, but didn't want to show it…_

She fetched a blanket and covered him with it. "So much for teaching me how to roll dice in a cup, huh?" She stared at him a bit. _He looks so calm and innocent when he's sleeping… completely different than usual…_ She hesitated, then reached out to brush his jet-black hair out of his face. _Think about it, huh? Do I even know what I'm thinking? I certainly don't know what goes on in your mind… _She sat on the floor and continued to look at his face, circling her finger around on his forehead. _You're right, though… I should figure out how I feel about you…_ Brushing his hair out of the way again, she leaned over and lightly kissed him on the forehead.

She stood up, not taking her eyes off of him, and then turned to go into her own room. "Sweet dreams, Otogi…"

*^-^* Omake BLAH!!!!!!!! *^-^*

So, I've been dead for the past two weeks. Do you know what I've been doing while I was dead?

Well, first of all, I've been ignoring Makkusu ever since I put that last chapter up. I thought he was finally getting it on Thursday (we had a snow day on Friday), but he seems to still not be noticing now!  
In Luigi's words… "What an oblivious person."  
Either that or he just doesn't care.

Next, here's a nice long list of other things I've been doing:  
Watching Ojamajo Doremi  
Watching Fruits Basket  
Worshipping Shigure  
Building my websites  
Laughing at Christian conversation hearts (I'm not making fun of my own religion, just the fact that there are conversation hearts with messages such as "Got God?")  
Translating the last episode of Ojamajo Doremi  
Avoiding looking at colleges  
Forgetting that we have standardized testing this week  
Being happy because we're supposed to take the writing test this week in our History or English class, both of which I had last semester and not now.  
Doing FUN MATH!!  
Being in my FUN MATH CLASS!!!  
…with my FUN MATH TEACHER!!!!  
Being sad because Ojamajo Doremi has ended  
Trying to convince my parents to let me go to Spain this summer  
IGNORING MAKKUSU!!!!  
Realizing that I know enough Japanese to translate almost an entire episode of an anime *coughOjamajoDoremicough* by myself (and scaring myself in the process)  
Doing cruddy art for the art class that I really shouldn't be taking because I'm not GOING to an art college and don't NEED to build a portfolio  
Eating at Friendly's (MAB!! MUST GO THERE SOON!!!)  
Doing almost nothing that has to do with Yu-Gi-Oh (except buying a few packs of cards; Mr. Volcano, the Witty Phantom, Bite Shoes, Boo Koo and Frog the Jam RULE!!!)  
Worshipping Shigure (wait…), Yami Bakura's sexy chest, random Pokemon from Ruby/Sapphire and   
Realizing that Ojamajo Doremi has been dubbed into Spanish and hoping that I can see it in Spain if I go  
Stuff (WOO!!)  
Drawing random pages from the MIDDLE of random mangas that I have come up with (Fushi no Senshi and Kyanpa~i!, to be specific…)  
Babysitting (OW!! My arm is cramped from holding that kid for so long!!! STILL!!)  
Not eating lunch and keeping the lunch money  
Being thoroughly amused by the number of insignificant Digimon characters have been made into icons, with the most insignificant outfits as well  
Trying- and failing horribly- to make chocolate from scratch  
Being an idiot and starting a fansite to Ojamajo Doremi AFTER the series ended.

I think that's all that I'll write. I did more stuff, but I'm probably boring you by now.

Oh! One thing…

chibi cat2- Yeah, I know. *waves it off* I know it's modern Arabic, and it's rather obvious that modern Arabic was not used in ancient Egypt. (I like to PRETEND it was, though! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) And since you corrected me on something I already knew, I shall correct you on something you probably already knew as well!  
Run-on sentences are not… er… grammatically correct. But they SURE are fun to write! :D (Okay, I'm not making fun of you, at all. I just felt that needed to be said, and if you've been reading these author's notes up to know, you know that I'm a big kidder and if I say something that may be thought of as mean, I'm really not being serious at all. I'm hardly ever serious. Actually, I would really mean it if it was someone I hated… but it takes a lot to get me to hate someone! Unless you flame me horrendously and back it up with something stupid like, "you misspelled this word" or something like that. Or maybe "I live in Nevada and I've never seen a 45 dollar bill." I didn't receive that flame, but… this omake section seems to be "Umeko steals Luigi's stuff" or something like that.)  
Yes, well, then… I'm glad you like my story. (One more thing… please don't take this as offensive at all, because I don't mean it to be… but it kind of annoys me when people criticize me on one tiny thing and then say, "Oh, but I like the story." I'm not saying that I didn't appreciate your review, it's just a little pet peeve I have.)  
And don't worry about anything in this passage that may have offended you, because I really seem to want to correct things also; it got me into a lot of trouble in eighth grade, and the teachers accused me of "harassment," but I won't get into that right now.  
Yeah… I hope I haven't driven you away now or anything, because I'd love to hear more of your input about my story! ;_;

Now I'll actually talk about the fic itself. I'm not happy with this chapter at all; my feelings are that I could completely cut this chapter out and it would do nothing to change the story (except for the development of the game, which isn't that important either, and a couple things that I am planning to connect to later chapters).

Hey, hey, look! Look, chibi cat2, Microsoft Word is saying that my previous sentence is a run-on! See, I make run-on sentences also… Bah. I'll stop now. (NOT MEANT TO BE OFFENSIVE! NOT… NO OFFENSIVENESS!!!)

If you can guess from what anime Hitomi's family situation is loosely based off of, you get a cookie! (Luigi, Mab, this is not a real offer.)

Also… as I was writing this chapter, I had a specific layout of Hitomi's apartment in my mind. So, I drew it out for you guys, since I'm a nice person.

http://www.boomspeed.com/yugi_h_2_oh/map.jpg

Tee hee, I'm such a nerd! I labeled everything as if it even MATTERS!!!  
Okay… the apartment actually looks a lot like the condo my family lived in when I was in the first half of fourth grade. Huh… Was that intentional or accidental? I don't know.  
You can kind of tell that my layout skills are not all that great… considering that the kitchen is the largest room in the house… and the couch and chair are facing away from the TV… Oh, well! Hitomi just has a crazy home!  
That Secret Hideout… that was not supposed to be there. But there was all this SPACE that I had no idea what to do with, so I just made a secret hideout. And now, since I've made it unintentionally, I'm going to use it in some later chapter… somehow…  
NO! I FORGOT TO LABEL THE STOVE! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That comes to the next thing. I have two chapters planned out after this… I'll try to think of more ideas, because I really want to keep writing this!!! Maybe I'll try to do something with Hanada… I mean, I gave him a _height_ for chrissakes…  
Anyway, if you have any ideas of what I could write after this, please tell me! I'd prefer it if you emailed them to me, but I really don't care. Put them in reviews if you want. I'm not guaranteeing that I'll use anyone's ideas; but it may get the creative juices flowing and I'll be able to come up with something on my own. If I do use your idea, I will give you full credit where credit is due! Yeah… that's it.

Oh, the next chapter may not come out for a month or so. I'm going to be concentrating on other projects and I'm going to try to make something special for you guys for the next chapter… Just so you know!

Now I feel that I need to talk about Ojamajo Doremi.  
Now, if you know me, you _know_ that I could just go on talking about it for hours on end. I'm not going to do that, because this section is long enough.  
This last episode nearly had me in tears. Actually, I would have expected myself to go into tears when I first heard that OD was ending back in early December. I guess I've been in shock, and that's why I haven't cried.  
Yes, I've been in shock for two months. So?  
Anyway, this last episode… oh my gosh, it just tied up everything! Even the things that I'm sure _everybody_ had forgotten about! Things that were introduced in the _very first episodes_ were finally tied up! I mean, they resolved what couldn't be solved in the first few minutes of the first episode of the first season. I had completely forgotten about that, and I literally gasped out loud.  
Now, you sort of have to see the first episode to understand that. The friends that I have force-fed it to (Luigi, Mab, I'm talking to you) can probably figure out what that last thing was.  
To understand what was going on and understand the _meaning_ of it all, you sort of have to have watched the series from the beginning… I'm not revealing the identity of Jooh-sama, but she has always been a very relevant character in and out of the Majokai (Witch World). And I've liked her ever since the first episode without even knowing it! HAW HAW HAW!!!  
Well, I'll just do short rants about the main-ish characters now. (And I'm acting as if I'm talking to them…)  
Harukaze Doremi- Doremi, you're so awesome. You DESERVE your steak! Marry Kotake, then you can RAISE COWS ON A FARM!!!!!!!  
Fujiwara Hazuki- Your voice is annoying. End of story.  
Senoo Aiko- Um… YAY!!!!  
Segawa Onpu- Oh, come on! You KNOW you love Oyajide!! YOU MUST GET TOGETHER WITH HIM!!!!! Besides that… you're pretty cool.  
Asuka Momoko- CHRISTMAS CAKE NI FRIED CHICKEN!! WA-OH!! WHAT IS THIS NOISE?! OH MY GOOOOOOOOODDDD!!! SHE'S STILL SLEEPING!!!! EVERYTHING IS PERFECT!! PLEASE HELP ME WHENEVER I NEED A HELP, OKAY????  
Harukaze Pop- Um… you're kind of stupid, but your awesome points are racked up a bit just because you're a Harukaze.  
The Baby- DDDDDDDDDIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
The Pachy- DDDDDDDDDIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
Yosei-tachi- YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST!! ROCK ON!!! Except Toto, you can just die along with your owner and her elephant.  
Alexander T. Oyajide- YEAH! OYAJIDE!!! YOU'RE THE LORD OF THE DANCE, MAN!!! KEEP PURSUING ONPU!!! SHE LUUUUUURVES YOU!!!!  
FLAT 4- Fujio, you're so cute and cool. Fight your enemies with your trumpet!! Leon… you're kind of weird. AND DON'T TRIP OYAJIDE, YOU BAD BAD BOY!!! Akatsuki… um… Akatsuki!!! Tohru, you're stupid. Give up on Onpu, your MASTER has dibs on her! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!  
Wait, no… the FLAT 4 is actually the FLOAT 5!! I forgot that Oyajide is included now! HAW HAW HAW!!!  
Majorika- SAMBA!!!!!  
Lala- SAMBA!!!!!  
Baba- You're so awesome. You're the bomb. SAMBA!!!!!  
Jooh-sama- …O.O OH MY GOD!!!!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT YOU'RE *********!!!!!! Actually, it makes a whole lot of sense now that I think of it and I don't know why I didn't see it before.  
Kotake Tetsuya- GO! CHASE AFTER DOREMI!!! *points to the sky with Momoko squint eyes*  
SOS Trio- You really have no relevance to the series at all, but I DON'T CARE! YOU'RE SO COOL!!!!

Okay, I'm done! Sorry if I bored you!!

Next Chapter

Chapter 7: Te o tsunaidemo ii desu ka? (May I hold your hand?)

Wait, scratch that, next chapter is the Valentine's Day special. So now I have 3 fics to write by Friday… . Oh, WELL!!


	8. Valentine Special!

2/13/03- Well, I was totally out of ideas for Hitomi and Otogi, so here's a Yuugi/Anzu one. It will have Otogi and Hitomi, though…  
This chapter will be… really crazy. I mean Love Hina crazy.  
Yes. It will be THAT crazy.  
And it's so unrealistic… everyone might end up OOC, but oh well.  
And just for fun, I put my comments in there.

This was originally written on the same page as my chemistry notes (due to lack of flat, bleached trees). I was going to include the random inserts about atoms and stuff, but for your sanity, I didn't.  
Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!  
(Psst… I don't support Yuugi/Anzu, but I don't not like it… I'm actually pretty open-minded with all Yu-Gi-Oh pairs.)

****

Cinnamon Eyes Special!  
A STORY THAT DOESN'T CENTER AROUND HITOMI AND OTOGI!!! GASP!!!

Anzu opened the door and entered her homeroom. "Happy Valentine's Day!"

Jounouchi and Honda were immediately in her face. "Did you make chocolate again this year?!" (AN: To me, Anzu seems like the kind of person who's horrible at cooking. But… that wouldn't work with this story.)

"Ah…" She smiled weakly. "Yeah… here…" She reached into her bag and pulled out two boxes.

"ALL RIGHT!" they cheered, then hurried back to their seats with the chocolate.

Anzu put her hands on her hips. "You're welcome!" she called. Then she walked around the room and gave out the rest of her chocolates.

"One for Bakura-kun…"

"Thank you, Anzu!" (AN: I have to watch my DVDs again. I can't remember what everybody calls each other…)

"And one for Kaiba…" (AN: Wait… why did I…? Whatever.)

"Feh." (AN: I debated over what he should say for a few minutes, listening to some Nobel Prize winner talk about protons and electrons. Then I decided on the Inu-Yasha approach.)

"And…" _Okay!_ she thought. _I'm going to give it to him! I will give him the honmei-choco!_ (AN: *like Nini* Yaw-RIGHT!) She walked over to Yuugi's desk and stopped short.

Yuugi was sitting at his desk in a dumbfounded state.

Electrons seek out… oops.

On his desk, he was staring at a pink package.

"Is that honmei-choco?!" Anzu grabbed the tag and read it. "'To Yuugi. I love you.'" She scowled at the idiotic simplicity of the message (AN: Well… it IS idiotically simple…), then turned to Yuugi. "Who gave this to you?!"

He blinked. "Um… I don't know. It was on my desk when I got here."

She turned to address the class. "Who put this on Yuugi's desk?!"

The entire class shrugged in unison. (AN: Due to the laziness of the animators. What? This isn't animated?! I DON'T CARE!! :P)

"FOAM!" (AN: Can you imagine Anzu foaming at the mouth?) Anzu stomped out of the classroom and headed down the hall for absolutely no reason. (AN: I was at a blank.) She stopped at one door when she heard noise coming from inside. (AN: GUESS WHAT DOOR THIS IS!!!)

"Yay! Honmei-choco from Hitomi-chan!"

"Otogi, you idiot! It's giri-choco!" (AN: Did you guess correctly?)

"Honmei-choco! Hooray!"

"OTOGI!!!!"

Anzu entered the room in time to see numerous dice flying through the air.

"You can't attack me with dice!" Otogi laughed. "That's MY domain!" At that point, he was hit square in the head. (AN: Luckily, his headband saved him from a concussion.)

"There!" Hitomi pointed at him. "It's giri-choco!!"

Anzu walked over to her. "Why did you give him chocolate at all?"

"Mazaki!" Hitomi turned to face her. "Hey, you're foaming at the mouth. What's wrong?" (AN: Shizuka and Mokuba are going to be in this chapter. Why did I say this here? I don't know.)

"Yuugi has honmei-choco!!!"

Hitomi giggled. "From you, right?"

"NO!" Anzu yelled. "That's why I'm so MAD!"

"Aha." Hitomi crossed her arms. "Then you do like him!"

Otogi ran over. "Yuugi-kun has an admirer?!"

"Two, evidently."

"Wow! He still has quite a way to go before he reaches my level, though."

Hitomi stepped on his foot.

"Ow!" (AN: … They're wearing in-school slippers. Would that really hurt? Whatever.)

"Okay, Mazaki." She winked. "Take me to the chocolate!" (AN: Don't say a word.)

***

"Nobody touch the chocolate!" Everyone jumped back as Hitomi approached the chocolate with rubber gloves on. (AN: Just to warn you, Hitomi is extremely out of character this chapter.)

Jounouchi grunted. "Is all that necessary?"

"Yes!" She grabbed the package and put it into an airtight bag. "Seto-kun, I expect you'll help me with this?!"

Kaiba waved at her from across the room. "Sure thing! Bring everybody to my office after school!" (AN: So is Seto.)

"Got it!" She turned back to the others, who were staring in disbelief. "You heard the man! His office after school."

"Hitomi-chan…"

"Yes, Hiro-kun?"

"That would have never happened if it weren't you." (AN: Darn right!)

***

After getting changed out of their uniforms, they all met at Kaiba's office. (AN: I can't remember what it's called. It's NOT Kaiba Land like the dub claims… ¬_¬) Finally, everyone was waiting at the front gates- except for Jounouchi.

"What's taking him so long?" huffed Anzu.

Honda scratched his head. "Well, if there's one thing you expect of Jounouchi, it's for him to be late." (AN: Ohhh… stupid brothers, I think I'm getting sick… *fights to stay conscious*)

Just then, Jounouchi came running up. "Hey! Sorry I'm late!"

"That's okay!" smiled Yuugi. "What held you up?"

Jounouchi pointed behind him to a brunette-haired girl. "Shizuka wanted to come along." (AN: *like Honda* Kawaii Shizuka-chan! *puts pink bows in her hair*)

"Shizuka-chaaan!" Honda rushed up to her. "How are you this fine and lovely-"

Otogi pushed him out of the way. "Shizuka-chan, would you care to take a nice stroll with me? It is Valentine's Day, you know- OW!" Hitomi hit him upside the head. (AN: Did anyone else see that coming? I know I did, but then again, I'm the authoress…)

She glared at him. "What do you think you're doing?"

Otogi turned around and grabbed her hands. "Ah, Hitomi-chan! I didn't know you cared!"

Blushing, she tore away from him. "I don't care about what you do, but you're hitting on a middle schooler!" She blinked, then walked up to Shizuka. "I'm sorry, I haven't introduced myself yet. I'm Kawara Hitomi, it's nice to meet you."

The small girl bowed. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Hitomi-chan. I'm Jounouchi Shizuka."

"Aha." Hitomi leaned down and whispered, "Are you aware of how completely oblivious your brother is?"

Shizuka blinked a few times. "…Huh?"

"Ahh…" she sighed. "Like brother, like sister, then." (AN: …Shizuka IS as oblivious as her brother.)

"Oy!" They turned to the gate to see a young boy on the other side. "Onii-sama sent me out to open the gates. You weren't waiting too long, were you?"

Yuugi shook his head. "No, it's all right, Mokuba-kun! Jounouchi-kun just arrived, actually."

"Oh, good!" Mokuba unlocked the gate and pushed it open. "Come right in, Onii-sama is waiting for you."

Shizuka squeaked and grasped her brother's arm. (AN: Hoo-rah! I'm growing to really like Seto/Shizuka… *ignores the 'ad' in her review book* I think I'll do a scene change now.)

***

"Well, jeez!" Jounouchi ran his hands through his hair. "He tells us to come all the way out here, and then just makes us sit around!"

Yuugi sighed. "I'm sure it's for a good reason…"

Anzu nodded. "Yeah, they probably need a lot of concentration to find out who gave Yuugi the chocolate…"

"Oh, that reminds me…" Shizuka reached into her pocket and pulled out two small packages. "Honda-san, Otogi-san, these are for you."

"All right!" They grabbed the presents. "Honmei-choco!"

Jounouchi growled. "I'LL show you guys honmei-choco…"

"Um… Onii-chan…" She tugged on Jounouchi's shirt to get his attention before he attacked them. "That's only giri-choco…"

"Well, let's not shatter their dreams," said Anzu, gesturing to the two boys who seemed to be in another world.

Yuugi laughed. "It's a good thing Hitomi isn't here."

Otogi suddenly broke out of his trance. "What?! Hitomi-chan isn't here?! Where did she go?"

Everyone sighed.

In the next room, Kaiba was furiously typing on his computer. "All right! Hitomi, where's the chocolate?"

"Right here!" She pulled out the bag and handed it to him.

"Gas masks on." (AN: WOO!)

"Right." They each put on a gas mask, and Kaiba grabbed a pair of tongs. Carefully, he opened the bag and took out the package of chocolate.

"Okay, could you open the hatch for me?"

Hitomi nodded and opened a door to a tiny compartment. Quickly, Kaiba thrust the gift into it, and Hitomi closed and secured the door. Then they tore off their masks.

"Okay, now to check for fingerprints…" Kaiba went back to the computer and began typing again. "This program should instantly scan for and identify fingerprints on the package. Okay, and… there!" He hit the enter key, and the screen came to life.

They stared at it, waiting for it to be done processing the information. Finally, two words appeared.

No Results.

"What?!"

"What kind of freak girl wraps the gift with the precautions so that she _isn't_ tracked?!"

"You picked it up with those precautions."

"That was completely different!" Hitomi scowled. "If I had touched it, _my_ fingerprints would have been on there!"

"Hmm…" Kaiba leaned back in his chair, scratching the side of his face. "Maybe there are some sort of DNA traces left on there…" He opened a different program, activated it, and got the same result.

"So…" Hitomi leaned on the back of his chair. "This freak girl did all this in a completely sterilized Level 4 biocontainment area wearing a pressurized biohazard space suit?"

Kaiba snorted with laughter. "You mean as if she were working with a hot agent? I don't think Yuugi would want to be pursued by _that_ kind of deranged girl…" (AN: They're so SMART!)

"Well, who would?"

"An equally deranged male?"

"Ah…" Hitomi opened the hatch. "I don't think we have to worry about the gas masks and gloves now. Unless this person really was working in a hot suite."

"If she were, we'd be hearing of our classmates falling terminally ill and vomiting blood already." (AN: Seto is being incredibly gruesome.)

She blinked and opened the door to the room where everyone else was. "You all right in there? No crash and bleed out cases?"

"Huh?" (AN: That's probably what you ALL are thinking! HAW HAW HAW!!!)

Kaiba roared with laughter, and Hitomi winked. "Okay, good!" Then she slammed the door shut. (AN: Their definition of humor.)

After Hitomi's incredibly odd question, everyone sat stunned.

"What was that all about?" asked Yuugi. He looked towards Otogi, who only shrugged.

"Hey, she doesn't talk about that sort of stuff with me," he said. "Our conversations basically consist of her insulting me."

Jounouchi groaned. "They probably think they're better than us…" (AN: He left himself completely open for an insult there, but nobody took it.)

"I'm going to see what's going on." Honda stood up and knocked on the door. "Kaiba! Hitomi-chan! What are you doing in there?!"

The door opened again, and Kaiba stuck his head out. He pointed towards Anzu and Yuugi. "You two. You want to know who this is from?"

Anzu glared, but Yuugi looked indifferent.

"Okay, then leave us be!" He attempted to close the door again, but Jounouchi stuck his foot in the doorway.

"Listen, Kaiba, we have a right to know what's going on in there!"

"Onii-chan…"

Kaiba scoffed. "Dogs have no rights to anything." (AN: Neither do "nameless ones.")

Shizuka stood behind her brother and clasped her hands together. "Please, Kaiba-san, could you please let us in? We're doing nothing out here and really want to know what's going on."

Kaiba stared at her with a straight face for a minute, then opened the door wider. "Fine, whatever." (AN: This actually _does_ happen in the anime, except it's for getting a doctor for Bakura.)

They walked in to see Hitomi prodding the package with a stick. (AN: Why? Because.)

"Um, Hitomi-san…" Anzu ventured, "why are you poking it?"

"That's top secret information, Mazaki. It's a wonder Seto-kun is even letting you in here."

Kaiba crossed his arms and nodded. "I don't know what's gotten into me."

Everyone stared at him for a moment.

At that point, Hitomi snapped the tag off the chocolate. "Seto-kun, let's check the handwriting."

"Okay." He took the tag then inserted it into a slot in the wall. The screen lit up again, and yet again came up with no results. Hitomi and Kaiba groaned and fell onto the floor.

"I guess the biohazard suit screwed up her writing quite a bit…"

"Yeah… that's probably it…"

The others stared at them. "…What?" (AN: Remember, they weren't in the room during the biocontainment level conversation.)

"Okay!" Hitomi and Kaiba jumped back up. "We'll have to take a DIFFERENT approach!" (AN: Who said that? I don't know.)

"Guys…" Yuugi stuttered. "It's really not that big of a deal…"

"YES IT IS!!!" the two screamed. (AN: Told you they're OOC.)

Kaiba grabbed a walkie-talkie. "Mokuba, can you hear me?"

The radio crackled for a moment, then Mokuba answered, "I hear you!"

"Mokuba, where are you?"

"Um… Kitchen number three." (AN: Anime*Angel, I loved how Kaiba's rooms were numbered in your Jou/Mai fic! XD)

"Okay, good," Kaiba answered. "Would you mind bringing Expiscor to computer lab number five?"

"Sure thing, Onii-sama!"

The connection was closed and Kaiba turned back to his guests. "So, we'll just wait until Mokuba gets here."

"Um… what is he bringing?" asked Honda.

"Expiscor. That's Latin for 'to search out.' It's a machine that will track the places that any item has been." He started walking to his left. "It's pretty big, though, so you might want to move over here."

"Why?" asked Anzu as they all stood up. "How big is it?"

A loud crash came from their right, and they were all blown through a wall into the next room. Kaiba brushed powdered concrete from his clothes and stood up, pointing to the machine. "That's how big."

They all stared at it for a bit. "It's a TANK?!"

Kaiba scratched his head. "Yeah, I guess you could say that." He walked over to Expiscor, stopping in front of the treads to look at the top. "Okay there, Mokuba?" The boy stuck his head out of the hatch and waved back, smiling.

Everyone got up and walked back. "Kaiba… you ruined your lab," said Jounouchi.

"Oh, I don't care." He turned to Hitomi. "Okay, you can put the chocolate right there."

"Right." She set the package where indicated to.

Kaiba turned on the radio again. "Okay, Mokuba, aim the gun at coordinates 16,G!" Everyone watched as the muzzle turned to be aimed straight onto the chocolate. "Great, now fire the beam!" They waited in silence, but nothing happened. He brought the radio back up to his mouth. "Mokuba?"

"Onii-sama…" came Mokuba's worried voice, "it's completely blown out!"

Kaiba growled, "What do you mean, 'blown out'?!"

"Um… the controls won't reach the beam-maker-thingie anymore. And it says that the gun is completely out of commision…"

He ran his hands through his chestnut hair. "Okay, thanks Mokuba."

Anzu huffed. "So, what are you going to do now?"

"Hitomi and I are going to have to make a handheld Expiscor. Won't take that long…" Kaiba started walking off, but no one followed. "Well? I can't work in a demolished lab."

They ran to catch up with him as he walked down a marble corridor. "Why did you ruin your lab if you could have made a handheld one that whole time?" asked Otogi. (AN: He hasn't said anything in a while.)

Kaiba looked at him with an "are you crazy?" look.

***

Everyone, minus Kaiba and Hitomi, were waiting in a separate room again. Yuugi looked down at the package in his hands. "Well, at least I'm allowed to hold it now…"

"Don't tell me you _want_ that chocolate!" Anzu demanded.

Yuugi shrugged. "It's the only chocolate I'm getting this year. Might as well keep it."

Otogi tried to hold back his laughter. (AN: Otogi knows that Anzu wanted to give Yuugi honmei-choco, remember?)

"What's so funny, Otogi?" asked Jounouchi.

He calmed himself and started twirling his hair around a finger. "Oh, it's nothing, really."

Shizuka blinked. "But, Anzu-chan, weren't you going to-?" (AN: So did Shizuka. Because Anzu, Shizuka and Mai are TIGHT!)

Anzu put her hand over the younger girl's mouth. "Don't… don't…"

"Don't what?" Yuugi looked up at Anzu with a questioning look.

"Okay, it's like this, Yuugi-kun…" Otogi smirked and leaned back on the couch, putting his feet on the table. (AN: Yes. He's on a couch. And there's a table.)

"Otogi! Don't you dare…!"

"See, Anzu got really upset when she saw the chocolate on your desk…"

"Don't! Stop!!" She attempted to grab him, but he held her back.

"Because…"

"I'LL RIP THAT DIE OUT OF YOUR EAR!!!"

Otogi paused and stared at Anzu. "No you won't. Yuugi, Anzu wanted to give you honmei-choco."

Anzu fell to the floor, face red. She glanced at Yuugi, who was also blushing furiously. _I suppose I should give it to him now…_ She went over to Yuugi and held out her gift. (AN: She had it with her.) "He- here, Yuugi…"

He took it and smiled at her. "Thank you, Anzu."

Kaiba and Hitomi then burst into the room. "We've managed to make Expiscor II!" exclaimed Kaiba.

"New and improved! It's pocket-size, now!" Hitomi held up a small device about the size of a fist. "Yuugi-kun, could you put the chocolate on that table there?"

Yuugi nodded and placed the beaten, battered package on the table, pushing Otogi and Honda's feet off.

Hitomi turned to Kaiba. "Will you do the honors, Seto-kun?"

"Gladly." He took Expiscor II from her and walked over to the table. Pointing it towards the chocolate, he pressed the button…

And the package burst into flames. (AN: WOO!!!!)

"Green fire…" Honda peered at the small inferno. "You don't see that everyday…"

Hitomi leaned towards Kaiba's ear. "Green?"

Kaiba inspected the fire. "Huh… that's unusual…"

"We've established that fact, Kaiba," snorted Jounouchi.

"Woah!" Kaiba's head jerked up. "The nameless one used a word with more than five letters!"

He didn't have time to be amazed any further, nor Jounouchi to retaliate, because it was then that the blaze exploded into dust, creating a large burned hole in the middle of the table.

"Oh…" whined Yuugi. "I was going to eat that chocolate…"

"Never, Yuugi-kun!" Hitomi shouted, pointing at him. "It could have been infected with Marburg! Do you want black blood to pour out of _every_ opening in your body?!" (AN: Hitomi is being gruesome as well…)

Everyone blanched, and Kaiba nodded knowingly.

"I'm leaving…"

"Yeah… me too…"

"See ya…"

"Um… bye…"

Everyone left as quickly as possible, including Hitomi, who was dragged out by Otogi. Soon, only Shizuka and Kaiba were left. He looked down at her. "Well? Aren't you going to leave also?"

"Uh…" She looked up at him, then down at her feet, blushing. "Um… Seto-san?"

He smiled at her formality. "Yes?"

She turned to look straight at his face. She paused, then thrust something into his arms. "Here." Then she ran off.

Kaiba stared after her until she turned a corner and couldn't be seen. Then he looked at the chocolate that he had just been given and smiled softly. "Thank you."

***

Yeah… so… that turned out to be more of a Yuugi/Anzu and Seto/Shizuka than Otogi/Hitomi. Oh, well, what are you going to do?  
I hope my notes didn't annoy you too much… ^^;;;  
I suppose I should explain the Japanese tradition of Valentine's Day for those who don't know it. This should be at the beginning, but oh well. Anyway, on February 14, girls are supposed to give chocolate to the guys they like. There are two kinds of chocolate: giri-choco and honmei-choco. Giri-choco is to be given to friends, relatives, etc. Honmei-choco is the chocolate that is given to the girl's boyfriend or the boy that she has a crush on. A month later, On March 14, the boys are supposed to give gifts twice the cost of the chocolates to the girls. Confectioners wanted it to be that the boys give the girls white chocolate, but that didn't work. Instead, the tradition is that they give the girls cookies or lingerie.  
Okay, and about that whole hot agent thing. "Hot" is military slang for being lethally infective in a biological sense. Therefore, a "hot agent" is an extremely lethal virus. These agents are kept and tested in areas that are called "hot zones." The people who work with these have to first completely strip down and go through ultraviolet light (which kills viruses) and shower completely before getting into a pressurized air-tight spacesuit. Areas 2-4 have negative air pressure so that, in the case of a leak, the air won't flow outside. The hotter the agent is, the higher level (there are levels 0, 2, 3, and 4) it's kept in.

Okay, I think I'm done. Oh, there was something else I wanted to say… Oh, well.

Thank you Diamond for voting! ^^ YAY!! *is a happy little buffalo*

I found a way through ff.net's 'read-only' mode. Yayayay!

V-Day is my half birthday, so give me half a review (or more)! ^.^


	9. Te o tsunaidemo ii desu ka?

8.1.03 - Well, this certainly took long enough, didn't it? I feel really bad about taking so long. Please forgive me! ;_; Actually, this will probably go up about a week after this is dated, because I'm on vacation.  
Ahh, my throat hurts so much. ;_; Remember how I said I though I was catching a cold back in the Valentine's Day chapter? Well, I DID catch a cold. And it hasn't gone away completely yet. It's getting worse again now. Five and a half freaking months… God.  
Anyway, a lot of stuff happens in this chapter. The chapter is 22 pages in html format, and 11 pages in Microsoft Word, 10-point Times New Roman (this is all without my notes). It was really hard to write, by the way. Not sure why, but believe it or not, I enjoyed writing the duels. Well, I liked deciding what would happen. I didn't like writing it out in the final draft, because there's only so many ways you can play cards, you know?  
Anyway, if you read the horrid Otogi's Birthday chapter that I have since deleted and noticed that it said that there were two chapters left in this plot, it lied. Actually, I changed my mind. I've combined the two chapters in this one, and that's why it's so freaking long.  
I'll probably have the next few chapters out within a week after I put this out. They're short, I've already written them, and it's sort of an easier storyline to write. Sort of.

I'd like to thank my collection of Yu-Gi-Oh cards for helping me write this chapter. All 399 of them!! ^^ (Yes, EXACTLY 399. Not 400. Actually, by the time this is posted, I'll ave probably bought about six more booster packs… -_-)

I use the Japanese card names in this chapter. The main reason for this is because I like shouting "Shishasousei!" better than "Monster Reborn!" Actually, I asked Mab for her opinion, and she thought it was a good idea to use the Japanese names. I don't know why. I originally had the English names in parentheses in the chapter, but I thought that was kind of distracting, so I made a page with the Japanese and English names of the cards, in alphabetical order by Japanese name. It's at http : // www . angelfire . com / oh5 / duel_standby / pages / cards . html. Just take out all those spaces. ^^;;; (Yeah, it's in the same format as the pages on my website. I was too lazy to make it different. -_-) And… um… oh, yeah. If any of the card names are wrong, that's probably because of an error in romanizing the kanji. I think there was something else I wanted to say, also, but I can't remember…

Chapter after this is special "chapter." YAY!!! Because… there are no notes at the bottom… because that would ruin the mood. So all the notes are in the next chapter.

****

Cinnamon Eyes

Wednesday afternoon, 3 days until the festival.

Class 1-A was assigned a plot of land on the school grounds, and afternoon classes had been cancelled for the rest of the week in preparation for Sakura Matsuri. As well as the dice game, the class had decided to set up a caramel apple booth.

Otogi was in charge of the construction, and Hitomi was in charge of general organization. However, some strange things were happening…

"Hitomi-chan!" Otogi came jogging up, sweaty and exhausted. Hitomi held out his water bottle, and he gratefully took it.

"I think I'll take a break now…"

She nodded. "That's fine. My break is just about over."

"Oh." He sighed. "That's too bad."

Hitomi opened her mouth to respond to that comment, but something suddenly bumped into her, causing her to fall into Otogi's arms. And it wasn't the first time that had happened that day…

"Sorry!" yelped a boy, running by with a piece of plywood.

Otogi looked down at the girl in his arms. "Hitomi-chan, are you okay?"

Hiding her red face, Hitomi pushed him away. "Get away, Otogi! You're all gross!"

He laughed, and she glanced at her nonexistent watch, trying to find an excuse to get away. "My break's over now, I should get-"

"Hitomi."

Hitomi spun around and looked up to see who was addressing her. "Seto-kun…" She looked behind him puzzled. "Class B is…"

"Yuugi told me to give this to you." He held out a box.

"Oh!" She took it and smiled up at him. "Thank you, Seto-kun!"

He also gave a small smile before walking back to his own class.

Turning back to Otogi, who was scowling bitterly, Hitomi handed him the box. "Here. Check through the contents while I'm off break. What's wrong?"

He scoffed, then grinned. "Nothing's wrong. What's in the box, though?"

"Duel Monsters cards that I ordered from Yuugi-kun's shop. They're the prizes."

"Oh?" He set the box on the ground. "You _could_ have gotten them from _my_ shop…"

Hitomi started walking off. "Well, I said I'd get the prizes myself. Without your help." Before he could answer, she turned and ran off.

***

Spotting Keiko and some other girls painting the sign for the caramel apples, Hitomi frowned. _This is too much of a coincidence…_ She knelt by the sign and took a brush.

"Hey, Keiko?"

She turned her head, looking at Hitomi with huge brown eyes. "Hi, Hitomi! You pulled your hair back, I like it! It looks cute…"

Hitomi silenced her. "Keiko, has the class been trying to set me up with Otogi?"

Keiko blinked and scratched her head. "Uh…"

The three other girls looked at each other, then ran off. Not that it was suspicious or anything.

"Um… uh…" Keiko faltered. "What makes you think that?"

Hitomi put her forehead into her hand and placed the brush on the ground. "Let's see. A week ago, I come to school and see the entire class, save me and Otogi, in a huddle, obviously discussing something. A few minutes later, the two of use are chosen by unanimous vote to be in charge of festival activities for our class. So…" Hitomi took her hand down to look Keiko straight in the eyes. "Otogi and I were _forced_ to be together a lot. And now, during the actual booth construction, we are somehow being pushed, hit, shoved or tripped into each other every few minutes." She sighed. "If you wanted to do this, you could at least be a little inconspicuous."

"Well…" Keiko twiddled her fingers. "We were planning on doing more, but…"

"_What?!_"

"Well, when we elected you two, you both seemed completely indifferent to the situation… so…"

"STOP IT, okay?!" I suddenly burst out. "Do you know how _embarrassing_ that is?!" Hitomi quickly stood back up, and immediately felt horribly lightheaded. _Oh, damn…_ She briefly blacked out, but came to as soon as she landed in somebody's arms.

"Hitomi-chan, are you alright?"

Taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes. "Hello, Otogi."

Keiko started backing away. "I… that wasn't my fault!" She hurried off.

Otogi stared after her. "What was going on? I heard you yelling, and…"

"She organized the entire class in a scheme to get us together." Hitomi stood back up, ignoring the pins and needles pricking at her skin and the red spots dotting her vision. "I got mad, overexerted myself, and fainted."

He sighed. "You really don't like being in the sun, do you? Are you okay? Should I take you to the infirmary?"

"No, that's all right. Is there water anywhere, though?"

He held out a water bottle, and she took it and drank. After a few moments, a thought struck her and she spluttered, pulling the bottle away.

"What is it?"

Hitomi gave back the bottle. "Was that _your_ water bottle?!"

He shrugged. "Yeah."

She glared at him, blushing. "You… you…" Not finding the right words, she just turned around and walked off. "Go back to your break!"

***

****

Saturday afternoon, day of the festival.

"Thank you, have a nice day!!" Hitomi waved the customer off, then turned to call behind her. "We need more apples up here!"

"Haaaaaaai!"

"Oi, Hitomi-chan!" She leaned out the booth and looked to her right, seeing Otogi in a similar position from the next-door booth.

"Hey, Otogi!"

He grinned. "How are sales going over there?"

"Great!" She gave the 'V for Victory' sign. "How about you?"

Otogi chuckled. "I think you may have ordered a _little_ too many cards."

"Oh, well. More for us to keep!"

"Hitomi?"

Hitomi came back into the booth to address the girl tapping her shoulder. "Yes?"

"Your shift is over now. You can go on break if you want."

"Thanks, Masami," she smiled. Grabbing her jacket and a caramel apple, she exited the booth and made her way to the other booth. "Otogi, we're on break now."

"Oh, really?" He stared at her. "Then, do you have something planned to do or something?"

She waved her hand dismissively. "I was thinking that we could go to class B's setup. I think you might like it, Otogi…"

By this time, Otogi had come out of the booth and was standing next to her. "That's right, didn't they get a big plot of land or something?"

Hitomi nodded as they started walking. "That's right."

"What did they need so much space for, anyway?"

She smiled. "What, they didn't tell you?"

"…No."

"Do you have your deck, Otogi?"

***

Yuugi waved at them cheerfully as the two walked up. "Hi guys!"

"The King of Games and the world champion…" Otogi sighed. "I should have guessed that you'd be doing duels…"

Yuugi laughed nervously, and Seto approached them as well.

"Are you dueling, Hitomi?" Seto asked.

Hitomi nodded. "Who do you think I should duel, though? I'm really not that good yet…"

He crossed his arms and looked around. "How about Bakura over there?"

She bristled. "Eh… Bakura…?"

"Um, Kaiba-kun…" Yuugi broke in. "I really don't know if that's a good idea…"

He raised an eyebrow. "Why not?"

"Er, well, you see… Bakura-kun… um…"

"Hey, Hitomi-chan," Otogi whispered in her ear. "You don't seem to get along that well, right? So you can settle your differences in this duel."

Hitomi thought that over. "Okay, then. Yuugi-kun, Seto-kun, I'll duel with Bakura."

Yuugi scratched his head as Seto called Bakura over. "Well, okay, then… Oh, Otogi-kun, Jounouchi-kun wants to duel with you."

Otogi shrugged indifferently. "Sure, whatever."

Bakura walked up, smiling politely. "Hello, Kawara. You and I are going to duel, then?"

Hitomi smiled back. "That's right, Bakura."

The three other boys sighed and began talking amongst themselves.

"They try to dissemble their dislike of each other, but you can just tell they don't get along," Seto said.

"Is there really a reason for that?" asked Yuugi. "I mean, they've only hung out together a few times, but they never got along to begin with…"

Otogi shrugged. "Hitomi-chan sticks with her first impression of people. That's what I'm having troubles with."

Seto looked at him. "What, did you come on too strong or something?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" He glared at the CEO, who just turned to the shorter boy.

"Yuugi, you and I were going to duel, right?"

Yuugi rubbed his neck bashfully. "Well, okay, I guess. Oh, Hitomi, Otogi-kun!" He handed a box to each of them. "Take these."

"Those are Duel Disks," Seto explained, seeing the confusion evident on their faces. He pointed to the device on his own left arm. "You put it on, then put your deck in there. Then…"

Otogi grunted, putting his disk on his arm. "I think we can figure it out."

Hitomi also put hers on. It surprised her how light it was, despite its appearance of being made of sturdy, solid metal.

"Okay, there are three areas where the duels will take place." Yuugi pointed to a clearing that was separated into three sections. "Kaiba-kun and I will be in area A over there, Jounouchi-kun and Otogi-kun will be playing in area B, and Hitomi and Bakura-kun will be in area C at the end."

"All right." Hitomi glanced at her opponent. "Are you ready to go, Bakura?"

He grinned. "Let's."

***

Otogi walked to area B to find the blonde boy waiting for him. "Well, this is déjà vu, isn't it?"

Jounouchi grinned. "Well, I wanted a bit of a challenge, and Yuugi and Kaiba are dueling each other. Besides…"

"…We have our own decks now." Otogi crossed his arms. "Last time, neither of us really got a good idea of each other's battle strategies. But now we can."

"Exactly what I was thinking, Otogi." Jounouchi activated his Duel Disk and shot out the hologram projector, Otogi following suit. "Oh, by the way, Kaiba has set some different rules for these duels."

"Oh? What's that?"

He pointed to the Disk on his arm. "As you can see, the life points are set at 8000. You can attack the player directly if he has no monsters on the field. And, to summon monsters with higher than level four, you have to sacrifice one monster, and sacrifice two for monsters over level seven."

"All right." Otogi nodded. "So, who has the honor of going first?"

Jounouchi grinned. "I will. Ready for this?"

"Jounouchi-kun, how could I _not_ be?"

The two activated their Disks and drew their hands. The blonde glanced at his cards, then placed a card on the disk. "I place set one card and place one monster card face-down in defense mode. Your turn!"

Otogi stared at the holographic card. "Out of curiosity, is it against the rules to look under there?"

"What do _you_ think?"

"As I thought." Pretending to sigh wistfully, he drew his card, then smirked. _Jounouchi-kun will get a kick out of this duel. I just need to draw this card's partner…_ "I play one monster face-down and set one card. I end my turn!"

***

Hitomi turned to the pale-haired boy from listening to Jounouchi. "New rules, huh?"

"Yes."

She activated her Duel Disk and launched the projectors, following Bakura's lead. "DUEL!"

"Mind if I go first, Kawara?"

Hitomi grunted. "Go ahead."

He slowly drew his hand, an evil smirk growing across his face. She shuddered, suddenly becoming aware of why he bothered her so much.

"I set two face-down cards and one monster in defense mode. Your turn!"

She cocked an eyebrow at his evident change in self-confidence. _He used to call himself "boku," but now…_ "Ore-sama? Ore-_sama_, Bakura?"

He only chuckled. "Are you going to take your turn, or do you pass?"

"I'm not passing on the first turn, stupid!" She glanced at her hand. "I set one monster in face-down defense mode. Your turn!"

Bakura drew a card, then grinned. "I play this field card: Yami!"

Hitomi's face fell. _No, not Yami…_ Then she noticed the cold, rapidly growing darkness lapping at her ankles. She glanced around fearfully, starting to panic, as her opponent cackled wildly.

***

Otogi's attention was snatched away from Jounouchi's Baby Dragon attacking his face-down Yaranzo, hearing the wild cackle of Bakura's other self.

"Hitomi-chan!" He began to dash to the growing darkness when a harsh voice called out to him.

"If you leave your field, you automatically forfeit!"

He spun around, dark bangs whipping him in the face. "Kaiba-kun, you bastard! Don't you see what's happening to her?!"

"I understand that," Seto retaliated. "I'm worried too. But on the field, we're duelists! Our first priority is our deck and our emotions go second! She'll hold her own or fall along with them!"

"Do you know what kinds of cards are in her deck?!"

Sighing, Seto answered, "No, I don't."

"Fairy cards," Yuugi mumbled. "Her deck is made mostly of fairy cards."

Seto paused, letting this information sink in. "Shit."

"Well, Otogi?" Jounouchi asked after listening to this conversation. "Do you forfeit?"

Taking a deep breath, he shook his head. "No. She'll work this out, I know she will."

***

__

Oooh… Hitomi moaned mentally. _This isn't good. My cards are bad for this situation… I have a few non-fairy cards in my deck, but…_ She was snapped out of her thoughts as a sharp voice addressed her.

"Are you done your agonizing, because my turn isn't over."

"Go ahead and finish, then!" she yelled back. "You have no reason to worry about me!"

"Alright." Bakura flipped his first monster into face-up attack mode. "I attack your face-down monster with Kubinashi Kishi **[1650/1900]**!"

The giant knight appeared on the field and slashed through Hitomi's card, which appeared briefly as Shine Abyss **[1400/1600]** before vanishing.

"It's your turn!"

Hitomi growled and drew a card. Glancing at it, she smiled. _Aqua Madoor. I used that it my duel with Otogi when _he_ played Yami…_ She placed it on the field. "I play Aqua Madoor **[1400/2200]** in attack mode, and attack your..." She paused. _Shoot, it gets a power-up, but it's not strong enough to hold up when Kubinashi Kishi will attack next turn. And I've already started to declare an attack, so I can't place a trap now…_ She looked at her hand, and shrugged. _Well, Waboku no Shisha is in my hand, I'll set it after my attack._ "Okay… I attack your face-down monster!"

Bakura smirked as his card was attacked and revealed to be Metamor Pot **[700/600]**. "Are you aware of Metamor Pot's special effect?"

Her eyes widened. _Damn!_ Discarding her hand, she drew five new cards. _There's nothing that'll help… _"I end my turn!"

The grinning boy drew a card. "I'm sure you've noticed that you're in trouble now, or does your intelligence not venture beyond your schoolwork?"

"Shut up and take your turn!"

"As you wish. I play Muma no Bourei in attack mode! And…" He activated his two face-down cards. "I equip Kubinashi Kishi with Yami Energy, and Muma no Bourei with Yami no Hashinken!" His monsters stood at **[1950/2200]** and **[1900/1800]**, respectively. "Now I attack with both monsters and end my turn!"

****

Kawara Hitomi [5550 LP]

Sighing, Hitomi drew her next card. Seeing it, however, her face lifted.

***

Otogi turned back to his duel, in which Jounouchi had just lost 300 life points from attacking Yaranzo **[1300/1500]** with Baby Dragon **[1200/700]**.

****

Jounouchi Katsuya [7700 LP]

Groaning, Jounouchi said, "Your turn."

Otogi drew his next card and played it on the field. "I play Dark Hero Zombire **[2100/500]** in attack mode and switch Yaranzo to attack mode. Now, I attack your Baby Dragon with Zombire and attack you directly with Yaranzo!"

****

Jounouchi Katsuya [5500 LP]

He grinned. "Lucky for you, Zombire can't attack you directly, and each time it does attack a monster it's attacking power decreases by 200 points."

****

Dark Hero Zombire [1900/500]

"I end my turn."

Jounouchi drew his next card and played it on the field. "I activate Scapegoat!" Immediately, four colorful little goats appeared around him. "Now you can't attack me directly right away."

The other boy frowned. "My turn." He drew his card and added it to his hand. "I attack two of your Scapegoat with both my monsters!" Two of the floating goats were eliminated and Otogi smiled. "Your turn."

****

Dark Hero Zombire [1700/500]

Pulling his next card, Jounouchi grinned. "I play Testu no Kishi Gear Fried **[1800/1600]** and attack your Yaranzo!!"

****

Otogi Ryuuji [7500 LP]

Otogi watched his monster disappear and shrugged. "It's a small loss. Don't get too cocky, Jounouchi-kun."

"I'm not getting cocky! Take your turn!"

He drew his next card and set it on the field. _Zombire's attack is less than Gear Fried's…_"I play Dark Elf in attack mode and switch Zombire into defense mode! Also," he added, "I pay 1000 life points so that Dark Elf can attack your Scapegoat!" At his words, his elf attacked another goat, leaving only one left.

****

Otogi Ryuuji [6500 LP]

"Better pull something good, Jounouchi-kun," Otogi called. "It's your turn!"

The blonde drew the next card in his deck and glanced at it before placing it onto his disk. "I play Yoroi Tokage **[1500/1200]** in attack mode and attack your Zombire!" He watched the monster disappear before adding, "I end my turn."

Otogi drew his card and then looked at Jounouchi fiercely. "Watch out. You're about to lose this duel."

***

"Yuugi!" Seto called from across the field. "Are you ready to start this duel?!"

"Sure!" Yuugi dug through his pockets and produced a coin. "Alright, you call, Kaiba-kun!"

"Heads!"

Yuugi flipped the coin, which came up, as predicted, heads. "You go first, then."

"Get ready!"

The shorter boy did so, allowing the ancient spirit to take over his body.

"Duel!" they both shouted.

The two top duelists activated their Duel Disks. As Seto flipped through his deck from bottom to top, stopping when he got to the top five cards, he noticed a crowd gathering around the dueling area. _I suppose they would find this amusing,_ he mused. _World Champion versus King of Games, creator of DDM versus the dog, and a huge black blob._ He brought his attention to the duel. "I set two cards face-down and a monster in face down defense mode! Your turn!"

Yami Yuugi furrowed his brow, studying his hand. _Magic Cylinder, Ankoku Mazoku Gilfer Demon, Chaos Soldier, Curse of Dragon, Yuugou, and… _He drew the next card. _Black Magician._ He scowled. _There are no monster cards level four or under…_ Sighing, he inserted Magic Cylinder into the disk. "I set one card face-down. Your turn."

Seeing his opponent's empty field, Seto began to laugh diabolically. "Feeble attempt, Yuugi! This duel will be over with this turn!" He drew a card but barely looked at it before flipping over his face-down monster. "I play Devil Franken **[700/500]** in attack mode and activate its special effect!" The CEO grinned menacingly. "By paying 5000 of my life points, I can call a fusion monster from my deck to the field. And I choose… The Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon **[4500/3800]**!!" The tri-headed dragon appeared on the field next to Devil Franken, pearly scales gleaming in the setting sun's rays. Giving off a thunderous roar, the steadily growing crowd cheered loud enough to nearly drown it out.

"But that's not all, Yuugi!" Seto taunted. "I also activate Kyodaika and equip it to my dragon! Since my life points are lower than yours, it's attack points are doubled **[ATK 9000]**!"

Yuugi felt a brief tinge of panic, but soon overcame it. _Kaiba's digging himself into a hole here…_

"Now, attack! Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!!"

All three heads powered up and blasted a stream of light towards Yuugi, who calmly activated his trap card. "I play Magic Cylinder, directing the attack back at you, Kaiba!"

Seto could only watch as his own monster's attack raged towards him.

****

Kaiba Seto [0 LP]

An eerie silence fell upon spectators and duelists alike. After a few minutes, Yuugi regained control of his body and broke the silence.

"That was… short…"

At these words, the crowd erupted into loud applause and screams, showing their approval.

Beyond the crowd, however, he noticed a bright blue convertible pulling up to the school.

__

Ah… she's here…

***

"You know, Bakura…" Hitomi grinned. "One of my strongest, non-Fairy monsters was in that hand that I had to discard."

He stared at her. "Well, too bad for you."

"So technically, it's in my Graveyard now, right?"

"Yes…"

She activated the card that she drew. "I play Shishasousei and revive Holy Knight Dragon!!" The gleaming pink dragon **[2500/2300]** appeared and gave a roar. "Now… attack Kubinashi Kishi!"

****

Bakura Ryou [7450 LP]

"I end my turn."

Bakura growled and drew his next card. "I switch Muma no Bourei to defense mode and place one monster in face-down defense mode. It's your turn."

Hitomi drew a card and placed it on her disk. "I play one monster in face-down defense and then attack your Muma no Bourei with Holy Knight Dragon!" She glanced at her opponent briefly. "I end my turn."

Drawing his next card and looking at it, he grinned wildly. "I set one card face-down. Your turn."

"Well, then…" She drew a card and added it to her hand. "I'll attack your face-down monster! Holy Knight Dragon!!"

The dragon attacked the card, which revealed itself to be Genei no Kabe **[1200/2050]** before disappearing. Bakura started cackling again. "Because of my monster's special effect, the monster attacking it is sent back to your hand!" At his words, Holy Knight Dragon left the field and returned to Hitomi's hand. "And you can't summon it back right away, because it's at level 7 and needs two sacrifices!" He glanced at his set card and grinned. "I'll also take this opportunity to activate my trap card! Ouija Ban!"

Hitomi merely blinked. "Ouija Ban?"

"Oh, have you never heard of it?" He smirked and pointed to a ball of light which had just appeared above his head, marked with the letter D. "I'm sure you learned the Roman Alphabet in elementary school, right? Besides this D, I have four other lettered cards in my deck: Shi no Message E, A, T, and H. At the beginning of each of my turns, I get to find the next letter in my deck and place it on the field. Once the word is completed, I win the duel. You know what word that is, right?"

DEATH. _Shi._ _Shoot, this guy sure has gotten bloodthirsty,_ Hitomi thought. _I knew we shared a mutual dislike, but he'd never actually shown it like this._ She bit her lower lip. "Your turn."

"Why, thank you." Bakura drew a card and the letter E appeared above him. "I remove Kubinashi Kishi, Muma no Bourei and Genei no Kabe in the Graveyard from play. And…" He looked at Hitomi, an expression of pure malice on his face. "Pay attention, Kawara Hitomi. You only have a few more minutes to live."

***

"Jounouchi!!"

"Huh?" Jounouchi turned around to see who was calling his name.

Otogi clenched his teeth. "Will you pay attention to this duel?"

A young woman came into view, long wavy blond hair flying behind her as she ran up.

Jounouchi was stunned and almost fell down. "Mai! What are you doing here?"

"What?" She crossed her arms as she stopped nearby the dueling field. "Can't I watch you duel? You _were_ the one who invited me to come, anyway."

"Oh… oh, yeah…"

Otogi laughed softly. "What, Jounouchi-kun? Is this your girlfriend?"

"Whaaaat?!" Jounouchi's face went red. "No way! How could any guy survive with HER around?!"

Mai's face was just as red. "You're not too great yourself, Jounouchi."

"Hey!"

Otogi rolled his eyes. "Can we please continue the duel, you two?"

"Fine with me!!" Jounouchi turned back towards him. "Take your turn!"

He grinned. "All right. First off, I play Shishasousei to revive Yaranzo, then sacrifice my two monsters to summon Cosmo Queen **[2900/2450]**."

Jounouchi looked at the female monster skeptically. "Sort of reminds you of someone, huh? I mean, not by appearances, but… somehow…"

"Shut up!" he yelled back, blushing. _He's right, though,_ he thought. _Somehow, this monster does remind me of Hitomi…_ "I'm not done my turn yet! I equip Cosmo Queen with Meteor Strike!" He smiled at his opponent. You'll remember this card, right? It's what I used to defeat you last time."

Jounouchi nodded, jaw tightly clenched.

"It allows me to deal you damage in the difference between my attack points and your defense points. And your Scapegoat has 0 defense points." Otogi pointed at the last remaining goat. "Which means that my attack will deal you 2900 points of direct damage! Now, attack!"

"Jounouchi, what are you doing?!" Mai screeched as the attack came towards Jounouchi's Scapegoat.

He turned back towards her, annoyed. "What am I supposed to do?! I…" He paused for a very brief moment, then activated his face-down card. "I activate my trap card, Kougeki no Muryokuka!"

Cosmo Queen's attack instantly disappeared, and Otogi stared on incredulously. "A trap card?! When did you set a trap card?"

"Very first turn," Jounouchi replied, winking. "I forgot about it also."

The black-haired duelist shrugged. "Oh, well. It only puts off the inevitable for one turn. Your turn."

Jounouchi drew his next card and frowned. "I set one card and place one monster in face-down defense mode. I end my turn."

Otogi stared at Jounouchi's face-down card. _Could it be a trap card? Or is he just calling a bluff?_ He looked back to his Duel Disk and pulled his next card. "I'll just attack this turn. Cosmo Queen, attack the Scapegoat!!"

This time, there was no trap card waiting, and Jounouchi lost the 2900 life points.

****

Jounouchi Katsuya [2600 LP]

"It's your turn."

"Alright…" Jounouchi drew his next card and smiled from ear to ear. "I sacrifice my face-down monster and Yoroi Tokage to summon… the Red-Eyes Black Dragon **[2400/2000]**!!"

Otogi scowled. "So? It's still not enough to defeat Cosmo Queen."

"And I set one face-down card. Your turn."

He stared at the face-down card. _Is it another bluff…?_ He drew his next card and cheered inwardly at seeing what it was. "Jounouchi-kun, I know you'll enjoy this!"

The blonde cocked an eyebrow. "Yeah?"

Otogi nodded, placing his card on the field. "I activate Dimension Dice and play Dice Dungeon!"

"What?!" Jounouchi stared at the field, perplexed, as it turned into a gridded pattern, with a die sitting in the center. "You… but…"

"Pegasus based these cards on my game," he answered, grinning. "We each choose one monster to go into the Dice Dungeon and we roll the die to determine how their attack points are affected for the turn. If your monster is destroyed, you can choose another one to use, but if mine is destroyed, so are the two magic cards. Anyway," he continued, "I choose to use Cosmo Queen. You?"

"I choose the Red-Eyes Black Dragon!"

The two monsters made their way onto the field, and the two boys started intently at each other. Finally, Otogi made his move.

"I'll roll now. Dice roll!" The die was thrown into the air and landed on -. "Ah… that decreases my monster's attack by 1000 points…"

****

Cosmo Queen [1900/2450]

Otogi shrugged. "Oh, well. Take your turn, Jounouchi-kun!"

As was asked, he drew his card and placed it in his hand, then turned back to the field. "Dice roll!" The die landed again, landing, again, on -.

****

Red-Eyes Black Dragon [1400/2000]

"Ah, that does no good." Jounouchi scratched the back of his head. "I'll end my turn, then."

The raven-haired boy drew his next card and placed it into his hand, rolling the die again. "Dice roll!" This time it landed on -. "Ah, good. A 1000-point increase."

****

Cosmo Queen [3900/2450]

"So now…" He brushed his bangs out of his face. "I'll attack your Red-Eyes!"

****

Jounouchi Katsuya [1100 LP]

"Jounouchi!!" Mai yelled. "I didn't come to watch you lose!!"

Frustrated, Jounouchi ran his fingers through his hair. "Calm down, Mai!! I can still win. Gear Fried!" He pointed to the gridded field. "Go into the Dice Dungeon!" His monster obeyed, and he took his turn. "Dice roll!" The die landed on -, meaning that his monster's attack would be doubled.

****

Tetsu no Kishi Gear Fried [3600/1600]

"Yeah!" He punched the air excitedly. "Now, attack Cosmo Queen!!" With Gear Fried's attack, Otogi's monster was destroyed, along with Dice Dungeon and Dimension Dice. "What now, Otogi?"

****

Otogi Ryuuji [5800 LP]

"You're in no position to taunt me, Jounouchi-kun," he calmly replied. "I'm still in the lead. By a long shot."

"Yeah, whatever, just take your turn!"

Otogi glared and drew his next card. "I set one card face-down and place one monster in face-down defense. Your turn."

Drawing his next card, the golden-haired boy grinned. "I _could_ take a chance on destroying your monster now, but I think I'll take the sure-fire approach and destroy my monster as well." He activated one of his face-down cards. "Black Hole!!" His Gear Fried and Otogi's face-down Gargoyle were eliminated from the field. "And I'll play this monster; Toki no Magician **[500/400]**!!" Jounouchi took a breath. "But I'm not near done. I also play Shishasousei and revive Baby Dragon! And…" He took a card from his hand and placed it on the field. "I play Yuugou, combining the two to make Thousand Dragon **[2400/2000]**!" The enormous orange dragon materialized on the field and lowered its shaggy head to ground-level. "Now attack directly!"

Quickly, seeing the blast coming towards him, Otogi activated his face-down card. "Waboku no Shisha!" Three robed ladies appeared on the field, canceling the oncoming attack.

Jounouchi scowled. "I end my turn."

Sighing in relief, Otogi drew his next card. "I place one monster face-down and end my turn."

"Alright." Jounouchi took the top card from his deck and placed it on the field. "I play Rocket Senshi **[1500/1300]**!! And I attack your face-down monster!"

The monster attacked, destroying the face-down Aku no Mumei Senshi **[1000/500]**.

"And I'll also attack you directly with Thousand Dragon!"

****

Otogi Ryuuji [3400 LP]

"It's your turn, Otogi."

He turned his next card and grimaced. _There aren't any monsters in my hand that can withstand Rocket Senshi's attack…_ He bit his lower lip worriedly. _So then he'd attack me directly again, bringing my life points to 1000. Then the next turn, even if I do get a monster with over 1500 defense, he could attack it with Thousand Dragon and attack me directly with Rocket Senshi, depleting my life points completely. So my only choice…_ Closing his eyes, Otogi placed his hand over his deck. "I forfeit."

Jounouchi stood where he was for a few moments, stunned, then gave a great cheer. "Yeah!! I won!!"

"All right!" Mai was evidently just as happy. "If you had lost, Jounouchi, I would have denied ever knowing you!!"

"Heh… good thing I won, then."

Otogi sauntered over, laughing. "That was fun, though, even if I did lose." Smiling kindly, he turned to Mai. "I don't think we've met. I'm Otogi Ryuuji." He extended a hand, which she took gladly.

"Kujaku Mai. I think I've heard of you…"

"And I, you." He paused, then gestured with his head towards area C. "I'd introduce you to my girlfriend, but she's currently stuck in there."

Jounouchi grunted. "If Hitomi had heard that, Otogi, you'd be dead. Or at least mortally wounded."

***

Seto stood at the edge of the playing grounds, arms crossed in typical Kaiba Seto fashion, ice blue eyes fixed on the dark abyss. There really was nothing he could do about it… he was a respectable, upstanding duelist and had no right to interfere with someone else's duel. Despite what might be at stake…

He didn't even notice as a certain group of friends approached him.

"Kaiba-kun?"

Slightly startled out of his trance, the he glanced down at the person that had addressed him. "Yuugi."

The shorter boy wore a strange face, part inquiry, part astonishment, part pity, part… what? "Do you like Hitomi or something?"

Seto managed to keep a straight face, then glanced around at the other people surrounding him. Jounouchi and Honda looked about to burst into gales of laughter; Anzu was smiling, Mai looked utterly confused, and Otogi looked as if he would start foaming at the mouth at any instant. He scoffed and turned away. "I am a man of business, Yuugi."

"Aww, come on, Kaiba," Jounouchi taunted, giggling. "That doesn't say anything!"

"May I remind you who was the one who tripped over his own two feet at the sight of a certain girl? And while dueling, which requires little to no movement of the feet." He shot the coldest glare he could manage.

The blonde was instantly silenced, cheeks bright red.

Sighing, Seto opened up his briefcase. "Yuugi, Otogi, Jounouchi, please return those Duel Disks."

***

"I summon… Dark Necrofear **[2400/3000]**!" On the field appeared what looked like a mother holding her child… only that it looked like they had been attacked, killed, resurrected into ventriloquist dummies with odd-colored paint jobs, and then attacked again. "And I'll attack your face-down monster!"

Hitomi winced as her Bio Souryo **[950/800]** was sent to the Graveyard, then drew her next card. "I play a monster in face-down defense position and end my turn."

Bakura drew his card and the letter A appeared above him. "Two more turns," he taunted. "I'll attack your face-down monster!" His Dark Necrofear attacked her card, Harp no Sei **[600/1800]**. "Your turn."

She drew and grinned, glancing at her card and then back at her hand. _Good, this should hold me over, for this turn at least…_

"What are you grinning about?"

Hitomi's grin faded as she turned to glare at her opponent. "I suppose you'll just have to wait and see."

Bakura stared at her with a straight face. "It has only now occurred to me that you have no idea what my powers are capable of."

"Psh, powers." Hitomi rolled her eyes. "Sure."

"You don't know just how I could be torturing all your friends outside of this field, do you?"

Hitomi stopped short. "You… you can't do that."

"How do you know?" He grinned menacingly. "As I said, you have no idea what I can do."

"You're bluffing," she muttered, but she was trying to convince herself of that.

He chuckled and tapped his cheek. "I wonder who should be first on my list, after I finish with you?" Smirking, he added, "Maybe that Otogi…"

"NO!"

Bakura's smile widened. "No? You dare defy me? I didn't think you'd have the gall…"

Hitomi gritted her teeth, feeling a blush creep across her face. "You… don't… if you even lay a finger on him…"

"Ha!" He let out a short cackle. "Quite protective of that boy, aren't we? Why would that be?"

"You… why should I tell you?!"

"You wouldn't mind what I did with him, then…"

"God damn it! Of course I would!!" Hitomi was trembling with anger now.

"Yet you won't tell me why," Bakura intoned, cocking an eyebrow.

Hitomi's face went even redder, and she clenched her fists. "…I… love him…" she said softly.

"What was that? I couldn't hear."

"I SAID I LOVE HIM!!" she screamed, furious.

Bakura sighed. "I never can understand these mortals and their emotions." Smirking, he added, "It's your turn, remember?"

__

Damn him! Shaken from the entire ordeal, Hitomi placed her cards on the field. "I set one card face-down and one monster in face-down defense. Your turn!"

"It's pointless to go on!" Bakura drew his card as the letter T appeared above him. "There's one turn left until your demise! But perhaps I'll spare you if you prove to be worthy." He grinned. "That doesn't seem too promising, though.

Hitomi glared at him fiercely.

"I'll attack your face-down monster with Dark Necrofear!"

"I activate my magic card!" Both cards were flipped up, and she smiled. "My monster is Holy Elf, a spellcaster. With the field bonus and my magic card, Reliable Guardian, her defense power is at 2900!"

Bakura growled as his life points decreased. "It makes no difference! The duel is over next turn!"

****

Bakura Ryou [6950 LP]

"That is true." She drew a card. "Perhaps. My turn." She looked at the card and grinned. "I play Mystical Space Typhoon and destroy your Ouija Ban trap card. And without that, the other three can't stay on the field, either."

He glared as his four cards were sent to the Graveyard.

"Also," she added, "I play Cross Soul and offer my Holy Elf and your Dark Necrofear to summon Tsubasa o Orinasu Mono **[2550/2200]** in attack mode!!" On the field appeared a beautiful fairy with six wings. "She's a fairy-type, so her points are decreased, but I equip her with Kuroi Pendant, making her attack points 3050!" Hitomi sighed in relief. "But I can't attack you this turn, so it's your turn."

Anger evident on his face, Bakura drew his next card. "I play Chuuya no Ookaji to deal you 800 points of direct damage!"

****

Kawara Hitomi [4750 LP]

"And," he continued, "I play Berserker **[1700/1200]** in attack mode!"

Hitomi frowned. "Attack mode? Are you insane?"

"Quite possibly, but I'm not done yet," he replied. "I play Kokoro Kawari to gain control of your Tsubasa o Orinasu Mono!"

"Oh, no," Hitomi groaned, observing her empty field.

"Do you know the combined power of their attacks?"

__

It's… 1700 plus 3050… She groaned again and looked at her life points. "It's 4750…"

"Exactly. DIRECT ATTACK!!"

***

Hitomi fell to her knees, breathing heavily as the darkness disappeared.

"Hitomi-chan!!" She was quickly swept into Otogi's arms, who squeezed her tightly. "Are you alright?"

She closed her eyes, relaxing in his strong hold. "I lost," she whispered.

Nodding, he replied, "I know. So did I."

"Bakura!" Seto rushed to the pale-haired duelist, scowling. "What the hell were you doing?!"

Bakura looked up at him with huge brown eyes. "What? Is the duel over?"

"_Yes_, it's over!"

"Kaiba-kun!" Yuugi placed himself between the two. "Stop it! He… um…" He paused, flustered.

Jounouchi grabbed Seto by his shirt and looked him in the face. "Kaiba, leave him be."

Seto hesitated, then scoffed. Removing Jounouchi's grip from the fabric, he mumbled, "None of you are worth my time." He started walking off, raising a hand in parting. "Stay well, Hitomi."

Otogi growled and released his hold on Hitomi. He went to start a pursuit of the young CEO, but stopped when she grabbed his sleeve.

"Don't…" She averted her eyes quickly, blushing. "Don't go. I need to talk to you…"

Otogi rubbed the back of his neck. "Um… okay. You want to go somewhere else, because we sort of have an audience here…"

She turned around, slightly startled at the fact that her friends were watching, then turned back to Otogi. "Okay. Follow me."

***

"Hitomi-chan, where are we going?" Otogi tried not to sound as exasperated as he really was. "We've been walking around for ten minutes, and we're _still_ completely surrounded by cherry trees." He rubbed his head, brushing off several pale pink petals in the process. He noted that her hands were jammed into her jacket pockets, indicating that she was nervous about something. "I mean, I'll follow you for as long as you want, but I'd like to know what's going on…"

He trailed off when he noticed that Hitomi had stopped walking. Cautiously, he moved closer.

"Hitomi-chan…?"

She turned to face him, then looked down at the ground, hoping that he couldn't see her red face in the pale moonlight. "Um… do you think… could I hold your hand, Otogi-kun?"

Otogi hesitated, taken aback, not just by her request but by what she had called him. "Uh… of course…" He reached his hand out towards her pocket, and she silently slipped her hand in his. As they started walking again, he broke the silence. "So… where are we going?"

Hitomi smiled slightly. "Nowhere, really. Just walking."

"Oh, okay…"

They continued walking for another five minutes before she dropped his hand and turned to look him straight in the face. "Otogi-kun?"

He blinked, still not quite used to the new name. "Ah… yeah?"

"I've been acting really nasty to you these past few weeks…" She took a deep breath and continued, biting her lower lip. "How could you put up with my attitude?"

Otogi rubbed his neck, contemplating the question. "Well, in all truthfulness, it wasn't easy. But I guess…" He smiled bashfully. "This sounds so hackneyed, but good things come to those that wait, I suppose."

Hitomi studied his face for a moment, eyes glittering in the moonlight. Feeling a blush start to crawl across her face, she looked away again. "Um… you told me to think about… everything… right?"

"You…" His breath caught in his throat, and he resisted the urge to start twiddling with his hair- that would have made her think that he was indifferent about what she said. "Um… yeah."

She jammed her hands back into her pockets. "Well, um… Otogi-kun, I… um…I…"

Smiling softly, he leaned down and brushed her bangs out of her face. "You've said enough." He paused, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a card. "Here. I thought you'd like this…"

Hitomi took the card and looked at it. "This…"

"It's Happy Lover…" He bit his lower lip, then continued, grinning. "Because, you like fairy cards, right? And also…"

She looked up into his bright green eyes, smiling. "Thank you," she whispered.

Otogi smiled back, leaning down. "I knew you'd like it."

As he approached, her eyes slowly drooped closed, and she welcomed his soft, sweet kiss.


	10. Random email fun!

From : Otogi Ryuuji ryuji_otogi@ddm.blackcrown.co.jp  
To : Kaiba Seto seto.kaiba.ceo@kaibacorp.co.jp  
Subject : Ha Ha.  
Date : Sat, 22 Apr 2000 23:16:23

In your face.

From : Kaiba Seto seto.kaiba.ceo@kaibacorp.co.jp  
To : Otogi Ryuuji ryuji_otogi@ddm.blackcrown.co.jp  
Subject : Re: Ha Ha.  
Date : Sun, 23 Apr 2000 06:34:46

I have no idea what you are talking about.  
And, Otogi, I would appreciate it if you please don't email me messages like that at this address, as it is for business purposes.  
-Kaiba Seto

From : Otogi Ryuuji ryuji_otogi@ddm.blackcrown.co.jp  
To : Kaiba Seto seto.kaiba.ceo@kaibacorp.co.jp  
Subject : Re: Ha Ha.  
Date : Sun, 23 Apr 2000 06:53:04

Oh, come on, don't play dumb.

From : Kaiba Seto seto.kaiba.ceo@kaibacorp.co.jp  
To : Kawara Hitomi hitokawa@msc.biglobe.ne.jp  
Subject : Please tame your boyfriend.  
Date : Sun, 23 Apr 2000 07:02:18  
Attachment: message1.txt (1k), message2.txt (1k), message3.txt (1k)

Hitomi, I have attached an email conversation that Otogi has started with me. I've told him to stop harassing me, to no avail, so I'd appreciate if you please try to convince him to stop.  
-Kaiba Seto

From : Kawara Hitomi hitokawa@msc.biglobe.ne.jp  
To : Kaiba Seto seto.kaiba.ceo@kaibacorp.co.jp   
Subject : Re: Please tame your boyfriend.  
Date : Sun, 23 Apr 2000 07:45:53

All right, sure, I'll see what I can do.

From : Kawara Hitomi hitokawa@msc.biglobe.ne.jp  
To : Otogi Ryuuji ryuji_otogi@ddm.blackcrown.co.jp  
Subject : Otogi-kun…  
Date : Sun, 23 Apr 2000 07:46:32

What are you doing? You're bothering Seto-kun, and he's asked you to stop. And what exactly are you bragging to him about?

From : Otogi Ryuuji ryuji_otogi@ddm.blackcrown.co.jp  
To : Kawara Hitomi hitokawa@msc.biglobe.ne.jp   
Subject : Re: Otogi-kun…  
Date : Sun, 23 Apr 2000 07:50:43

Damn that coward… coming to you for help, huh? And Hitomi-chan, I love you so much, but sometimes you can be really dense. Sorry, I'm not going to tell you what we're talking about- Kaiba-kun'd kill me.  
My god! Hitomi-chan, what are you doing up so early?! It's Sunday, and we were at the festival late last night! You should be asleep at this hour! Get some rest, you need it.

From : Kawara Hitomi hitokawa@msc.biglobe.ne.jp  
To : Otogi Ryuuji ryuji_otogi@ddm.blackcrown.co.jp   
Subject : Re: Otogi-kun…  
Date : Sun, 23 Apr 2000 08:03:36

Thanks a lot. I'll ask someone else, then.  
I'm fine. I have schoolwork to do, that's why I'm up now.

From : Otogi Ryuuji ryuji_otogi@ddm.blackcrown.co.jp  
To : Kawara Hitomi hitokawa@msc.biglobe.ne.jp   
Subject : Re: Otogi-kun…  
Date : Sun, 23 Apr 2000 08:05:21

No! Don't ask anyone else! I doubt they'll give you a straight answer, anyway.  
And get to bed, please.

From : Kawara Hitomi hitokawa@msc.biglobe.ne.jp  
To : Mutou Yuugi yugigame@msc.biglobe.ne.jp   
Subject : ???  
Date : Sun, 23 Apr 2000 08:05:40  
Attachment: message1.txt (1k), message2.txt (1k), message3.txt (1k), message4.txt (1k)

Yuugi-kun, do you know what they're talking about? Otogi-kun won't tell me, so I was wondering if you could.

From : Mutou Yuugi yugigame@msc.biglobe.ne.jp  
To : Kawara Hitomi hitokawa@msc.biglobe.ne.jp  
Subject : Re: ???  
Date : Sun, 23 Apr 2000 08:41:32

Eh… um… Sorry, Hitomi, I really shouldn't tell you what's going on. It's sort of a personal thing between them, you know?  
I will admit, it's about you. But I'd advise that you don't try to dig deeper into it- I doubt that Otogi-kun and Kaiba-kun want you to know about what's going on. The others respect their privacy, also, so I don't think they'll tell you about it, either.

From : Kawara Hitomi hitokawa@msc.biglobe.ne.jp  
To : Mutou Yuugi yugigame@msc.biglobe.ne.jp   
Subject : Re: ???  
Date : Sun, 23 Apr 2000 08:53:03

Others? Exactly how many people know about what's going on?

From : Mutou Yuugi yugigame@msc.biglobe.ne.jp  
To : Kawara Hitomi hitokawa@msc.biglobe.ne.jp  
Subject : Re: ???  
Date : Sun, 23 Apr 2000 08:58:49

Including me, Kaiba-kun and Otogi-kun… that would be seven. Perhaps Mokuba-kun also, but I don't know.

From : Kawara Hitomi hitokawa@msc.biglobe.ne.jp  
To : Mutou Yuugi yugigame@msc.biglobe.ne.jp   
Subject : Re: ???  
Date : Sun, 23 Apr 2000 08:59:15

SEVEN?!

From : Mutou Yuugi yugigame@msc.biglobe.ne.jp  
To : Kawara Hitomi hitokawa@msc.biglobe.ne.jp  
Subject : Re: ???  
Date : Sun, 23 Apr 2000 09:01:08

Um… please don't kill me?

From : Mutou Yuugi yugigame@msc.biglobe.ne.jp  
To : Otogi Ryuuji ryuji_otogi@ddm.blackcrown.co.jp  
Subject : Um…  
Date : Sun, 23 Apr 2000 09:03:34

Otogi-kun, I think maybe you should clue Hitomi in to what's going on, if even just a little bit. She's really upset that this has to do with her, and yet so many people besides her know about it.

From : Otogi Ryuuji ryuji_otogi@ddm.blackcrown.co.jp  
To : Mutou Yuugi yugigame@msc.biglobe.ne.jp   
Subject : Re: Um…  
Date : Sun, 23 Apr 2000 09:09:14

You told her this has to do with her? Why did you do that, Yuugi-kun?! Of course she's upset NOW… jeez.

From : Otogi Ryuuji ryuji_otogi@ddm.blackcrown.co.jp  
To : Kawara Hitomi hitokawa@msc.biglobe.ne.jp   
Subject : Listen…  
Date : Sun, 23 Apr 2000 09:13:48

I'm sorry, Hitomi-chan, I just can't tell you what's going on, okay? I didn't even want you to know that it WAS about you. If I could tell you, though, I definitely would.  
Anyway, want to go out for lunch or something today? I'll call you, alright?  
Love you.

***  
How's that for fun?  
***

Now. I have A LOT of reviews. And I'm going to answer them all!! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!  
I mean, it's not THAT bad. When Lethe answered her reviews for Smile, she had- what- over 170? Something like that. ^^;;;  
Alrighty, here we go!

Life's Light/anime*angel - …

Oh, gosh… I haven't even answered any and I've gotten bored of it. They're really outdated… I suppose that's what I get for not updating in 6 months. -_- I'll just answer a few, I guess.

Mutou Yasu (chap 5) - He was just kidding. ^^;;;;  
pruningshears (chap 9) - Well, yeah, that's why I said he was OOC.  
Curtis Zidane Ziraa (chap 10) - No. No, it wasn't.  
Life's Light/anime*angel (chap 10) - Heh… I'm sure that if I looked at what I said again, I wouldn't be able to translate it. ^^;;; And what are all these chapter 10 reviews still doing here? Chapter 10 was deleted! AAAHHHH!!!  
Tyrinia and CYBACELL - …You're right. I'M NOT WORTHY!!!! *runs into a wall*  
Sekhmet - Wow, deep. Truth be told, this was the review I wanted to respond to the most. Anyway, you are absolutely right. I am _completely_ happy with my life, and I suppose that could be an excuse as for why I abandoned this fic for six months. Or not… whatever. You looked at my website? YAY! I've been working really hard on that in the time that I haven't been working on this. Heh. And here you go, I answered your review! ^^  
Kiana87 - Hey, I'm going to email you as soon as this goes up. I know you've been waiting. ^^

Well. Now that that's done, I don't know what else to do. Lost of stuff happened while I was "gone," and for those of you who are concerned, I am no longer mad at Max-su (Makkusu). We're the BEST of friends again! MWAHAHAHA!!! Um… yay.

Senior year is coming, and tomorrow is my 17th birthday! AAHH!! I think…

Well, I'm done. So long!

Next Chapter

Chapter 8: Doushita no? (What's wrong?)


	11. Doushita no?

8.2.03 - It's 12:01 AM. MWAHAHAHAHA!!!  
New storyline now. Hooray!  
I love the law of sines. It's so fun, but the law of cosines is more fun to say.

Short, short, short chapter. Next chapter might be even shorter, unless I decide to combine it with the chapter that comes after it, which I might very well do.

****

Cinnamon Eyes

"Since we now know the measurements of angle B and leg ß, we can find the lengths of…"

Hitomi balanced her pen above her upper lip, bored. _Gah, it's so hot…_ She laid her head on the cool desktop, hearing the teacher but not listening.

"Psst! Hitomi-chan!"

Feeling Otogi kick her chair, she reached behind her and took the note he passed up.

'Isn't the law of sines fascinating?  
Yuugi-kun's birthday is this Sunday, and we're all going to the beach. How about it?'

She turned around to face him. "The _beach_?!" she whispered fiercely.

"I'll get you a beach umbrella if you want, " he replied.

Hitomi turned back to her notes and scribbled down the solution to the triangle. Then she faced him again. "All right, I'll come. But I might not-"

"Kawara! Otogi!"

Turning forwards again she saw their teacher throw a stick of chalk towards them. Before it could hit, Otogi reached forward and caught it.

Their teacher turned back to the board. "Pay attention, you two."

"Sorry, Sensei," they chorused as several of their classmates giggled.

***

"You could have waited to tell me you know," Hitomi groaned as they walked home from school.

Otogi chuckled. "Well, that wouldn't have been as much fin."

"It wasn't very fun bringing attention to ourselves like that."

"I guess you're right." He looked up at the sun, squinting. "How long until summer vacation?"

"Eight weeks."

"That long?"

"We only just took our midterms."

He sighed. "Well, tomorrow's a half-day. Want to go out after school?"

"I can't." She turned to look up at him. "My parents are getting off work early tomorrow, so I'm going to spend some time with them."

"That's nice." Otogi smiled, waving her off as they reached her apartment building. "I'll see you at school, then."

***

"…mi… Hitomi?"

Hitomi blinked, coming out of her daze, and saw Yuugi's worried face in front of her own.

"Oh, hey, Yuugi-kun," she smiled. "Happy birthday, by the way. You're 17, right?"

Yuugi blinked. "That's the fifth time you've said that…"

"Oh, is it?"

"You've been really out of it, Hitomi," Honda said, walking over.

Jounouchi snickered. "Yeah, you totally missed Otogi pushing Kaiba in the sand for sitting too close to you."

"Oh?" Looking around, she spotted Seto standing a ways away, covered in sand, watching Mokuba play and making sure not the make eye contact with anyone else. Otogi was nowhere to be seen. She gave a small half-smile. "That's nice. Why did he come, anyway? I didn't think he liked Yuugi-kun that much…"

The others looked at each other, grinning.

"Well, whatever." Hitomi yawned, then curled up under the umbrella again. "Wake me up if something interesting happens."

The three boys shrugged and walked off, somewhat confused.

***

Yuugi scratched his head. "What do you think's wrong with her?"

"No idea," Jounouchi replied. Then he called out, "Hey, Bakura, Anzu! You know what's going on with Hitomi?"

The two looked up from the sandcastle they were building with Mokuba.

"Why would I know?" Bakura half-snorted.

Mokuba bit his lip, thinking. "I don't think Nii-sama knows, either. He tried to find out a while ago, but he was thrown into the sand."

"I think asking Otogi is your best bet," Anzu sighed.

"Yeah, well…" Honda looked around. "He seems to have disappeared."

"He ran away after attacking Nii-sama." Mokuba jabbed his thumb towards his brother behind him, who was still standing with his arms crossed. He, however, didn't look as threatening as he usually would, because he was wearing a T-shirt and swim trunks.

"There's Otogi-kun," Bakura announced, pointing towards where Hitomi was situated. Sure enough, Otogi was casually wandering up to her.

***

Otogi looked down at the girl curled underneath her umbrella. "Hey, Hitomi-chan. You can't sleep right now, you're being rude."

Hitomi stirred a bit. "Leave me alone, Otogi."

He blinked, taken aback, then knelt down next to her. "What happened to 'Otogi-kun'?"

Sitting up, she bushed him away. "I said, leave me alone."

Genuinely hurt, he stared at her, but she wouldn't make eye contact. Finally, he grabbed her wrist and forced her to look at him.

"Hitomi-chan, something's wrong, and I want to know what."

She glared at him, then answered, "We can't go out anymore."

"Why?! Did your parents say something? Tell me!"

Hitomi didn't answer.

"Tell me!!"

She pulled her wrist away and looked right into his eyes. "_Miai_."

***

Nope, not telling you what "miai" means. I'll tell you next chapter. Or you can look it up for yourself.  
No notes, as I am being overly productive and I updated yesterday. (And it's bad that I'm updating this NOW, because my chapter bank is going empty… I'll have to start writing again…)

Next Chapter

Chapter 9: Sonna! (No way!)


End file.
